


Fulcrum

by Haecceity



Series: An Empire is a Machine [1]
Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: AU, Child Abuse, F/M, Stockholm Syndrome, bitter satire, no right answers, prolonged imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-21
Updated: 2013-05-21
Packaged: 2017-12-12 12:12:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/811473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haecceity/pseuds/Haecceity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darken captures Kahlan just after 1x21 "Fever"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She was beautiful, lying there in her cell. His men had managed to subdue her at last. She and The Seeker and That Wizard had parted ways while in one of the towns. Not an argument so much as a search. It had taken eight of his men to bind her and put her in the wagon. Now she was his in body. He would have her mind and spirit too.

Darken Rahl had heard many stories about the Seeker's Confessor's beauty but they paled in comparison to the travel worn figure lying in his cell. Her pale skin so perfectly complemented by her rich dark hair and her vivid blue eyes. Eyes that were currently narrowed to slits of hatred. But that would change, he could change that. He could prove himself worthy. Worthy of something more than being hunted down by a bastard who ought never to have been born.

"You will be provided with soap and water. If you wish to clean your dress you will be provided with the materials to do so." He told her quietly. She was not a Mord Sith. Beatings and rats would not transform her into what he wanted. Unbidden the memory of her glare while she told him he was unlovable sprang into his mind. "Food will be brought down in an hour. Do you prefer lamb or beef?"

"May the Keeper take you." She hissed at him.

***

Darken Rahl decided that two days with no company was long enough. The Mother Confessor had been provided with clean clothing, food and on occasion reading material. Books of fairy tales not texts on anything important of course. But his was the only face she was allowed to see and then only to ask her what type of food she wanted.

Today marked the first step in the next phase. She was neither as stupid nor naive as dear, sweet little Jennsen. She would be much harder to win over but he was certain that once he had she would be his. Not like pathetic little Jennsen. Darken Rahl deliberately unclenched his fists and motioned for his guards to open the door.

"Today is a lovely day. Would you care to walk in the garden?" He asked mildly.

The Mother Confessor looked at the quad darkly and leaped from her bed, confessing the nearest guard. Darken Rahl stepped out motioned another quad forward, between himself and the Confessor.

Her strength drained, she dropped to the bed. Darken Rahl motioned for the door to be shut with the Confessed guard inside. "All you had to do was say no." Darken Rahl maintained his mild tone. One man Confessed, two men dead and another injured was not a very high price to pay for this round. "I'll leave your pet in there with you."

***

The desire to see her again, to speak with her burned in Darken Rahl's mind. But he was patient. He would not have been able to capture so much of Westland and the Midlands if he had not been capable of waiting and watching. He knew men's weaknesses. That was what made him different, better than his father.

So for four days Darken Rahl forced himself to work despite the distraction waiting in his dungeons. The distraction in the white dress with the impractically long sleeves and low neckline that flashed a tantalizing glimpse of soft breasts that could bring a man joy if they weren't attached to a Confessor.

It was much harder than he would have thought, ignoring her pet. He knew there was no way a puppet could compare to what he had to offer but there was still the way she cared for the man. Today he deemed it time.

"That man has a wife and three year old son." Darken Rahl said conversationally after taking the Mother Confessor's dinner request. The woman's glare was strangely gratifying. "You Confessors go on and on about how I'm a tyrant, I'm the cruel man depriving people of their freedom. But I have never done to a man what you have done to how many of my men over these last few months? No matter. It's not as if you'd listen to reason."

"I have nothing to say to you." The Confessor snapped.

Progress. "No? I suppose you wouldn't. You think my attempts to defend myself are cruelty. Do you know what it's like to live under a prophecy of your own death? Look at me Confessor. I speak truly. Do you know why I keep you here, safe from torture, safe from my Mord Sith, safe from my Dragon Corps? Because you are like me. I could have cut down that Confessed man. I could have touched you while you lay weakened. Perhaps I will come to regret staying my hand. But like me you know how to do monstrous things to stay alive. You Confessors do it all the time. I know why there are no boy children of Confessors who live to adulthood. How is that any different from I did at Brennidon? You say I am a tyrant and you sit there with the most loyal subject a monarch could ever ask for. But I believe you are more than the indoctrination fed to you through your childhood. I believe you can overcome your training and see the truth of the world."

He could tell from the subtle twitching of her shoulders that she was either struggling not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry or the pleasure from knowing he had gotten to her enough to make her scream at him.

***

He was only able to contain himself for three days the next time. The guards reported that she had taken to having her slave sing to her to break the monotony. That meant it was time to step things up.

"Today is another lovely day. I once again offer you the hospitality of my garden." This time when she attacked he killed all of the Confessed men. After the door was barred he sighed loudly. "I'm sorry you made this necessary. At least now this poor man's family can have a funeral."

***

Without the thought of K- the Mother Confessor having company Darken Rahl was surprised at how much easier it was to stay away. Next time he would not let it go on so long. It was a mistake to push his patience so close to the snapping point. The point was to push her, not to be pulled by her.

She had been in his dungeon for two weeks the next time he struck up a conversation with her. It was still far too early in the game to expect her to strike up a conversation with him. "The hypocrisy of your order is astounding." He didn't miss the way her eyes grew hungry for a moment before her control reasserted itself and she looked resolutely away. "For example, you cannot bed a man without making him your slave. And you need to have more daughters in order to continue across generations. Killing the sons I suppose could be deemed acceptable since they are a threat to everything you strive for but how do you explain the fathers? Confessors do not ask for volunteers. They take the best men and turn them into puppets." The turn of the pronoun was not accidental. "How do you explain that?"

"It is necessary." The Mother Confessor said hotly.

"How are you defining necessary?" He colored his words with curiosity.

"I'm not discussing this with you?"

"Why? What are you afraid of?" He smiled at her. "Your mother effectively killed your father. What for? There are so many alternatives."

"Stop." The Mother Confessor ordered.

"She could have gone to a city, rounded up criminals and spent her power there before allowing your father to lie with her." He saw a glimpse of something before she turned away. "Or perhaps not your father. Perhaps some other man who could then stand honorably at her side and assist in the raising of her children."

"May you rot forever in the Underworld." Ka- The Mother Confessor hissed.

***

Darken Rahl made his next conversation attempt two days later. She had made several statements to him last time and so she should not need to sit alone so long this time. Patience. This time he would see how much more coaxing she would need before she would believe a display of vulnerability. When he had taken her request for breakfast she had nearly bit her tongue trying not to say something. He was right. She was much smarter than poor, dim Jennsen. She knew he was manipulating her. She expected nothing less.

Darken Rahl smiled at her. "I'm sorry. I've been so rude. Let's see if I can find a more neutral topic instead of all this picking and jabbing."

Cautious blue eyes watched him warily.

"So, what can we talk about that's neutral. Not the war. Certainly not magic. Definitely not The Seeker." He allowed his anger to show. She wouldn't believe him if he hid it. No, this was to remind her that he was the enemy. And still she wanted to talk to him. But she wanted The Seeker more. He buried the hurt and smiled. "I know. When you were a child was there ever anything you wanted to be other than a Confessor?" Suspicion hardened her eyes. "At one point I wanted to be a horse," he pretended not to notice.

She snorted in surprise.

"Oh yes. I wanted to be a big, black charger." He smiled, feeling pity for the child he had once been. And hatred. That stupid, helpless child.

"Richard is going to kill you."

"Yes." Lord Rahl said testily. "But not in the next five minutes. Probably not in the next five hours. Maybe not in the next five months or five years." He spoke with a growing confidence he didn't truly feel. "It's possible it might not even be in the next five decades."

"Then why are you so afraid?" She asked, sounding so smug.

He couldn't lie to her. She was a Confessor, sworn to help the Seeker get to the truth. But the best deceptions were always rooted in truth. "If you behave yourself I might tell you." The haunted look from sleepless nights spent obsessing over what to do about his- The Seeker was disturbingly easy to put on.

She recoiled away from him, burying her nose in the book.

***

He asked nothing more than what food she required for the rest of the week. On the morning of her twenty third day she finally spoke to him.

"If Confessors are so evil then why did you try to become one?" The Mother Confessor stood haughtily but he had learned to read the loneliness in her eyes.

"To perfect them." Lord Rahl hid his triumph. "If we can make more then we do not need to rely on women to enslave men in order to bring about more women. And to protect myself from them."

"You mean us."

Lord Rahl made a noncommittal noise.

"I am a Confessor and Richard will kill you." She sounded very certain.

Darken Rahl looked away until he had remastered his expression. "That is why there is a heavy door between us. I heard that sometimes you throw the chamber pot and sometimes you keep the food trays."

"Why aren't you torturing me? You've already had the opportunity." The Mother Confessor sounded angry.

"What worse could I do to you than to have you sitting here, thinking of The Seeker and unable to help him?" Lord Rahl smiled, in control of the conversation once more. "Maybe even thinking about who they replaced you with. You know the other Confessors, do you not? Who would they send to guide Richard next?"

"You're a sad, pathetic man." Kahlan hissed.

"And what does that make you? You pay lip service to freedom while sowing strife. If you and The Seeker would just let me run my Empire everyone's lives would be improved. Look at me. Use your abilities. Without the resistance I wouldn't need to spread plagues or magical weapons that can kill entire villages. If everyone would just stop fighting I wouldn't need to fight back."

The Mother Confessor slowly drew back.

"The resistance speaks as if it has the interests of everyone at heart. It says that I am oppressive. But what of what they do? When they kill my troops am I supposed to simply stand by?" Ordering people to their deaths was one thing. Allowing others to take away what belonged to him was something else. "And do you actually think I could hold all of this territory if there weren't men on my side? Why are they worth less than the rebels who spread anarchy?"

"Because they're betraying their people." The Mother Confessor said firmly. "And not all of those who stand aside are on your side. Many of them are too afraid to stand up to you."

"The rebels make it necessary for me to tighten my grip on their homes. Does that not make them traitors? Dissidents make trouble for their neighbors and I allow peace to return." Darken Rahl felt control slipping away again.

"You torture, you murder, your men nearly killed my sister. You held her and tried to steal her child." The Mother Confessor's voice rose in volume and conviction. "Everywhere your men go they leave a path of fear and pain."

Darken Rahl heard his pulse drumming in his ears and red edged into the corners of his vision. "People don't understand anything less. People only really understand pain and fear. They can talk themselves out of anything else, even sadness and sickness. But pain is immediate and fear is lasting. You learn more from pain than you do from lessons or reading. Fear is what keeps people from doing dumb things, bad things. Fear and pain are the only forces you can ever really be sure of. Make a man give an oath and he'll talk himself out of it. Take his sister hostage and he'll obey you. Scold a child and he learns nothing. Beat him and he remembers it." Darken stopped, realizing he was breathing heavily. He swiftly turned and walked away.

***

Kahlan sat alone in her cell and stared at the wall. Lord Rahl had not denied her sunlight. A small rectangle of it slowly traveled from left to right at the top of her room. The bed was comfortable and free of lice. She could bathe herself and did not have to live with the smell of her own waste. It was far better living than being on the trail.

She slowly lay down on the bed and hid her face in her pillow to muffle the noise as she cried. Richard was on the trail, had been on the trail without her for weeks. Lord Rahl was right. He had most likely been assigned another Confessor by now if one could have been found. Did Lord Rahl know that?

Chiding herself for self pity Kahlan dried her eyes. Next time she would ask to walk in the garden. Next time she would get a guard near enough to Confess him. She would steal whatever weapons she could and fight her way out of the People's Palace and back to Richard.

Taking a deep breath she used the skills she had learned as a Confessor to think back over the exchange she had had with Lord Rahl. The man was desperately afraid. Surely she could use that to her advantage somehow. She needed to push him somehow, make him see her on his level.

Or should she pretend to submit? Not all at once but gradually pretend to be his... dog. Something harmless and fawning until he let his guard down. She would coax him out and then strike.

So Kahlan sat back and waited for time to pass. She picked up the book and flipped through it absently before dropping it on the bed. She was tired of the fairy tales with their gruesome endings for girls who misbehaved and boys who took too much interest in girls. She was tired of women waiting in towers for brave, handsome princes and woodcutters.

A thought poked its ugly head through her mind like a bubble of swamp gas moving through mud. What if she asked Lord Rahl for something different? A cookbook perhaps. Or a book on Old D'Haran etiquette.

Her mind sprang into action as she planned out what kind of book, how she would ask, and when would be the best time. Not too soon because he'd be likely to dismiss her request after what she'd said to him this morning.

Kahlan's train of thought was interrupted by a bowl of porridge in the slot. It was a generous portion but plain. He apparently wasn't going to starve her for her behavior but he was giving her servant's fare. She tried to convince herself she felt no reaction other than outrage as she quietly ate her breakfast.

***

Kahlan watched the dawn sun leave a streak on her wall. This was the twenty-sixth day she had spent in this room. The twenty-sixth day of her captivity to the most evil man she had ever met. The third day since she had seen him last. Three days of nothing but an old book, her exercises and her thoughts.

The roo- cell was just barely big enough to let her practice the fighting moves that had kept her alive so far. She couldn't help but think that it was deliberate. It was a reminder of the fact that he could take away her freedom to do even that much on a whim just like everything else he gave her. Which of course led to wondering why he allowed her the amount of freedom that he did. True she couldn't roam the halls and talk to people but she wasn't starving, being beaten and forced to live in her own filth either.

The first conclusion she had come to was that he was afraid of the Con Dar. This felt true but no longer felt like the whole truth. She had tried over and over to call on the Con Dar but it had been nearly a month and the closest she had come was to give herself a massive tension headache.

Kahlan had come to accept that the only way she would be able to call on it was if she felt Richard was in immediate danger of at least dying if not worse. So she had tried to convince herself that without her he would be as good as dead. She tried to picture him lost and vulnerable without her at his side but that image didn't ring true. Then she had taken to picturing him running all over the countryside and blundering into traps looking for her. That felt true but she wasn't able to picture a trap Richard couldn't either fight his way out of or talk the locals into helping him get through.

Kahlan placed her hands against the wall and tried to calm the whirl of her thoughts. The truth was that Richard could complete his quest without her. He had to.

***

"I would like a new book, please." Kahlan kept her eyes downcast. Being so subservient brought the taste of bile to her mouth.

"Is there anything in particular you would like?" Darken Rahl asked in that gentle voice he had only broken from once during her captivity.

"Whatever my lord wishes to give me will be good enough." The words were servile but the tone was not.

Darken Rahl's lips twitched. "I believe I can come up with something. Is there anything else?"

"You drank the potion. Why don't you touch me?" Kahlan demanded. Admitting that she nee- wanted something from him was all the circumspection she could manage.

"I have several flaws. All of which I am aware of. Failing to learn from past mistakes is not one of them." He deliberately raised his hand to touch the skin Richard's sword had sliced. "As my contact with the pristinely ungifted has taught me; my magics are not as reliable as I thought they were."

Kahlan snorted incredulously. "You've given up the search for the power of Orden?"

"Of course not." Darken Rahl smiled. "But I feel no need to be foolish about it. As you should recall. You were behind that espionage attempt in Tamarang, were you not?"

"Paranoia is not the same thing as cleverness."

"No but I am both and therefore still alive." His voice had an edge. "Tell me, Confessor, is a man who kills another man always wrong?"

Kahlan grit her teeth and held her temper. "No. If another man tries to kill him then he may kill that man first. But you tried to kill Richard first. There is no comparison."

"There was a prophecy that The Seeker would be born in Brennidon. I asked the town of Brennidon to give him to me. They refused. Does that not count as attempting to harm me?"

"No. They were trying to protect a baby who had done nothing wrong." Kahlan met his gaze steadily.

"Like the male children born to Confessors?" Darken Rahl's voice was as smooth and soft as silk.

Kahlan's face twisted with rage as she remembered Dennee's face when she realized the baby was a boy.

"You let one live." Darken Rahl was on the edge of wonder. "A Confessor allowed a male child to live. Tell me, what did it feel like to turn your back on your Order?"

Kahlan swore the vilest oaths she knew at him.

***

In the late afternoon of her thirty-fourth day a book clunked into the slot used to pass her food. "A History of Horse Breeding?" Kahlan blinked. "How... unexpected."

"Would you care to go for a walk in the garden with me?" Darken Rahl was the image of graciousness.

Kahlan paused and nodded. Maybe if she could just see some other people. Then the pair of quads came in. Anger at her situation flooded through Kahlan and she grabbed the nearest man and confessed him as she took his dagger.

The fight was brief in such confined quarters. The man behind the Confessed knocked him silly before he could complete his request for a command. The dagger was plucked from her grasp and the Confessed disarmed with such routine that she knew they had to have been practicing.

***

The dawn of Kahlan's thirty-sixth day marked the first time Kahlan became weary of her new guest. The Confessed always tried so hard to please that it was taxing all on its own. Her current command was to have him read aloud from a genealogy of D'Haran horses. It was soothing but monotonous. Dull.

He was a handsome man; blond haired and blue eyed like most D'Harans but a little taller than average. She had spent the previous morning trying not to think about that. Now all she could see when she looked at him was Finn. It wasn't that he looked particularly like Finn. He was just another Confessed D'Haran.

Kahlan winced. Just another. She couldn't allow herself to think that way. That was the way towards abusing her powers and turning into a monster. She shivered as she remembered Darken Rahl's voice saying almost the same thing.

***

On the fortieth day while Kahlan was eating lunch with Tremmon and having him desribe to her the farm where he had grown up when she heard a noise that she had not heard in well over a month. She turned to look at the door and saw through the window in the top that Darken Rahl stood there, holding a child of about four years old.

"Papa!" The little girl shrieked and Tremmon turned around with a smile on his face.

"Yara." Tremmon said happily.

"Yara, meet the Mother Confessor." Darken Rahl told the child who mumbled something shyly.

"Pleased to meet you, Yara." Kahlan said with all the dignity she could muster. A part of her mind began to scream. Not this. Anything but this. She could fight anything else.

"When you come home?" Yara asked Tremmon.

Before Tremmon or Kahlan could say anything Darken Rahl stepped in smoothly. "Papa lives here now because he loves the Mother Confessor more than you or your mama."

As Yara began to sniffle Kahlan stood. "Your papa loves you very much. He told me so."

"Tremmon. You could go home to your wife and children but you would never see the Mother Confessor again." Darken Rahl said without a hint of anger.

Tremmon shook his head. "I must stay with my mistress. She tells me what to do."

"I could order you to go home and be happy." Kahlan said, knowing she wouldn't. He wasn't Yara's father anymore.

"This is part of what I'm fighting against." Darken Rahl told the blond child who looked so much like Dennee. "I don't want other children to wake up one morning and find their papas love a monster like her more than their children."

Kahlan thought over the replies she could make to that. If she tried to explain that Yara's father planned to hurt her then Darken Rahl would be telling the truth when he said that he had ordered his troops to make her comfortable and all he wanted was a walk in the garden with her. If she tried to tell the child that Lord Rahl was the monster the child was already looking at the man who used to be her father. If Kahlan tried to explain, argue or reason with the child it would all come back to one thing. Kahlan had stolen Yara's papa.

There was no mistaking the triumph in Darken Rahl's eyes when he took the child back to her mother.

***

The forty-seventh day in Lord Rahl's keep was an overcast one. Kahlan sighed heavily. The boredom was getting to her in ways that torture never could. She knew it and felt helpless to stop it. The only changes from day to day were all directly Lord Rahl's doing. She had to rely on him for any entertainment more complex than children's games with Tremmon.

Kahlan won another round of Xs and Os and suppressed the need to scream. Anything to shatter the silence, the mind numbing stillness. She looked into Tremmon's devoted blue eyes and in that moment she hated him more than she had ever hated anyone. Darken Rahl included.

Alana. She was certain that by now Alana would have come forward to guide The Seeker.


	2. Chapter 2

Lord Rahl walked confidently down the corridor to his prison. In the nicest room he kept his nicest prize. He was sure that she had already tried standing on one of her puppets' shoulders to look out the window. It was too small for even a child of twelve to leave by that route. The only way in or out was through a heavy door whose lock and hinges were located outside. With the Con Dar she doubtless would have been able to blow it open and wreak havoc on the People's Palace. He carefully avoided making her angry at him. It was far more beneficial to make her angry at herself.

When he opened the window in the door the sight he saw was not of the defiance that had greeted him when she had first been brought to him. The same fire lit her blue eyes but it was not so well controlled. She looked at him and there was conflict in her eyes. She still hated him but she hoped too. She hoped he would speak to her.

"Where have you been?" The Mother Confessor's voice came close to quavering.

"Your Seeker gave me some trouble." Lord Rahl said carefully. "I had to attend to it personally." He watched her reaction carefully. Once he convinced her to walk with him in the garden he would lose some of the advantage he had here. Here he could see her better than she could see him. She could likely read him better than he could read her so he would need to be sure before he offered her the garden again. Next time he was certain she would take him up on it.

"You must not have killed him or you would be gloating about it."

"No, I didn't kill him. He got away from me again but not before I was forced to detonate a rather productive Dragon's Breath mine." Darken Rahl smiled kindly. "I trust you are well."

"I'm imprisoned in my enemy's castle. That's not well." Kahlan said venomously. "It will never be well."

"I'll try not to be gone so long next time."

"Two weeks!" Kahlan's outburst bordered on hysteria.

Darken Rahl sighed. She was faking, she had to be. "I left orders that servants bring you food and continue to dispose of your waste."

Kahlan simply glared.

Darken Rahl smiled sardonically and bowed his head. "My deepest apologies, Mother Confessor. Next time your compatriots make trouble for me I will make sure my schedule for dealing with it works for you."

"Or you could just stay here and let it happen." She smiled sweetly.

"Not likely." Darken Rahl revised his mental schedule.

***

On the sixty fourth day since he had first put the Mother Confessor in her cell Darken Rahl noticed her freckles were fading. "I want you to tell Tremmon to die."

"What?" The Mother Confessor actually sounded surprised.

"It's something I read in a historical account." Darken Rahl smiled. "Giller said he supposed it was possible but he could never actually verify it. The account said a Confessor's control was so absolute that if she commanded him to die then he would fall down dead on the spot."

The Mother Confessor's expression twisted as he spoke. First disbelief, then disgust and finally anger. "You want me to kill a man in order to satisfy your curiosity?"

"You can then. Good. It's good to know the limits on what the wizards of old gave the Confessors." Darken Rahl let her see his satisfaction. "It's always interesting to know just what they considered to be an appropriate use of power. Giving people the power to enslave others? That's a good use of power. Making those slaves so devoted that they would lay down their lives without a single thought to preserving themselves or their former loved ones? Also good. The power to prevent anyone from hurting anyone else ever again? That's bad, wrong, evil. Who would want to do such a terrible thing?"

The Mother Confessor sneered. "The only way you could do that is to rob everyone of their free will."

"Which is entirely different from a Confessor's Touch." Darken Rahl countered sarcastically.

"Confessors only touch when it is necessary in order to get to the truth of a crime."

"Yes but if they're innocent then you can't give them back their freedom," Darken Rahl pointed out, "unless you're willing to die to give it to them."

"That's why we're trained to be able to tell without touching as often as possible."

"What about men like Tremmon?"

"That was self defense."

"Then why would ordering him to die be wrong? Surely killing him in hand to hand combat could be justified as self defense but how does taking away his freedom equate to defending yourself? Look at him. This is what your love would turn your beloved Seeker into." Darken Rahl pressed harder. "No will except to please you. No thoughts except those that center around you. He would not merely love you. He would worship you. Your every breath would be a miracle to him. Your every word would be law."

"Stop it." She scowled.

"Every time you glanced at him he would feel like his whole world was brighter and every time you looked away it would be lonelier. He would be your slave and he would love it."

"My mistress said stop!" Tremmon shouted. He looked bewildered when the Mother Confessor recoiled away from him.

"If that fate isn't good enough for The Seeker then how could you stand to have children by someone you have done the same thing to? Over and over through generations those women have done it. How can anyone decent think they are anything but evil?" Lord Rahl did not pay attention to any of the invective Kahlan spewed behind him as he left.

***

He let her stew on that for four days. Darken Rahl didn't announce his presence right away the next time. Instead he stood by the door with the window open a mere slit. Inside the cell the mother Confessor was going through a knife drill in her white dress. The skill it took to keep the sleeves out of the way was quite impressive and Darken Rahl wished he could see her do it without the door in the way. She was strong like his Mord Sith except that her ruthlessness was not carried on the outside.

Outwardly the Mother Confessor was a gentle woman; a mother to all those under her protection. That was her weakness. That was what he needed to bend. He opened the window the rest of the way and began to loudly applaud. "What a fine display. You do your teachers proud."

The Mother Confessor gave him a dirty look. "What do you know about my teachers?"

"Not enough it seems." His lips twitched into an expression that was too bitter to be a smile. "Enlighten me."

"Why don't you just interrogate or kill me?" Kahlan sounded more disgruntled than fearful.

"I already told you. Besides, The Seeker knows you're here. Someone overheard him saying that he could "just tell" you were still alive. It's making him reckless." Lord Rahl smiled smugly.

"You're lying." The Mother Confessor shot back.

"Am I? You'd know better than anyone." Darken Rahl shrugged. "But I heard another very interesting fact through my spy network that I wish to discuss."

"If you're going to go fishing you ought to be near fish." The Mother Confessor angrily waved Tremmon onto the floor from where he'd been sitting on the bed watching her practice.

"As I recall the Confessors' objections to me besides killing them was that I was a dangerous murderer who threatened the Midlands. I have received news that Queen Corah is in fact a murderous beast who can be killed only by The Seeker." Darken Rahl raised his eyebrows. "So let's go over the list shall we? Murderer, danger to her neighbors not to mention friends and family. Which reminds me. There's a rumor going around that she killed her uncle to keep him from being a threat to her bid for the throne."

"You started that rumor." The Mother Confessor said calmly.

"Not personally." Darken Rahl said with false modesty. "And so when I heard this I had to think what is it that I have done that makes me worse than a Calthrop."

"I suppose you're going to tell me your conclusion whether I want to hear it or not." She affected boredom.

"The Confessors tolerate Queen Corah for the same reason they tolerated Queen Milena." Darken Rahl smiled. "They don't particularly care about a monarch as long as they have two characteristics. That they are not D'Haran and that they at least make a show of bowing to the will of the Confessors."

"The Confessors do not interfere with the inner workings of the governing of the Midlands." The Mother Confessor said staunchly.

"They opposed me and my father."

"We. We opposed you and your father." The Mother Confessor stressed the pronoun.

"You? I think you're a little young for that. You were simply doing what your elders told you to do. I can forgive you for that."

"I don't want your-"

"Now, now. They say forgiveness is good for the soul." Darken Rahl purred. She was responding so well. The more she fought him the more of her weaknesses he could see. The self recrimination was growing slowly but steadily. "What is it about my conduct that is worse than Queen Milena's? She attacked her neighbors. She killed her servants in an eyeblink and didn't even do them the courtesy of making it by her own hand. Where was the movement to resist her? She even had one of the Boxes of Orden."

"Queen Milena did not hunt down Confessors and try to take their children."

"That's true. Yet I still didn't see your face among those at Her Celestial Highness's tenth birthday party. No. You were hiding in the woods waiting for me to walk into your trap." Pointing out to her another failure but more than that, an inconsistency in her story. Her response would have to be to either defend that inconsistency or admit that he might have a point. Eventually she'd admit a point and from there his work would be so much easier.

"Queen Milena was a monster but she had no intention of subjugating her neighbors. Her rule would have ended eventually. Then Tamarang would have been ruled differently with fewer lives lost."

"What I remember of the dear princess was that she took after her mother most strongly. Queen Milena's successor was well on her way to being just bad at ruling as her mother was." Darken Rahl knew that the Mother Confessor would have to jump after that bait.

"Bad at ruling? You admit it?"

"Of course. She was obsessed with baubles and cared little for maintaining her throne through anything other than the fear she inspired by killing her own subjects." Darken Rahl made a dismissive hand gesture where the Mother Confessor could see. "I on the other hand am concerned with the welfare of my people."

"No, you're not. You're a frightened child striking out at everyone around you." Contempt soaked her words.

"I protect my people from the Confessors, I protect my people from the resistance that makes their lives more difficult than necessary and most of all I protect them from each other. See, that's something the Confessors should understand but don't. They act like people want justice. They don't. The Resistance acts like people want freedom. They don't. What people want is whatever their neighbors have."

"That's not true. People want hope, they want truth, they want more-"

"More than the Confessors can give them. That's why there are murderers and rapists. That's why people side with me-"

"They want freedom from fear!"

"They want the stability that I can provide. Take away fear and people have nothing."

"People want their children to grow up to have better lives than they did."

Darken Rahl's laugh was only slightly forced. "Like your father?"

"Leave him out of this." She hissed.

"Like your mother who knew what you would have to be because of what she was. The woman who trapped you and your father and your sister-"

Kahlan threw the book of horse genealogy at the door.

***

Darken Rahl opened the window to the door of the Mother Confessor's cell and pondered on the difference seventy one days had made. He had to admit to himself a curiosity about what she might look like in Mord Sith colors. The brown and red would each look good on her normally. Right now she was a little too pale but a little sun could cure that. On the other hand she looked good pale and in the white dress. Like a ghost of her former self. He smiled.

"Is there something you want from me?" She demanded, glaring at him.

"Many things. But first things first." Darken Rahl graciously tilted his head. "Would you care to leave the puppet here and visit the gardens with me? I will not blindfold or harm you. A simple walk outside where there is sunlight and greenery."

"No men coming in here and escorting me?" She asked sharply.

"None if you behave yourself." Lord Rahl replied magnanimously. "And if you leave your slave here."

"Tremmon."

"Yes mistress?" The former soldier looked pathetically eager.

"Stay on the bed."

Darken Rahl opened the cell door and let Kahlan out for the first time in more than two months. The look of joy that flickered through her eyes before she could hide it was a gift. She waited until they reached the door into the castle before she drew the sharpened handle of her hairbrush from her sleeve.

"Let me go." The Mother Confessor demanded.

"Or you'll do what?" Lord Rahl asked softly. "I thought your precious prophecy said that The Seeker would be the one to defeat me."

Doubt clouded Kahlan's eyes only briefly.

Lord Rahl lashed out and took the weapon from her. "Enough of that. The gardens are that way." He pulled her along, gauging her reaction from the corner of his eye. When her eyes went dark he could feel her mind battering at his. "Oh good. The potion still works," he said when she was done.

"Why are you doing this?" Kahlan's tone held more weariness than anger.

"You need sun." Darken Rahl noted her glazed expression and suspected it was a mask for her true feelings. That expression changed to dazzled when she stepped into the light of the garden.

The garden was very precisely laid out with shady parts and matching colors. Each plant had enough space to grow and gather the sunlight it needed. They were watered neither too much nor too little and each had the right kind of soil in order to flourish. He guided Kahlan through a path overhung with pale pink flowers. Their sweet fragrance washed over Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor.

As they passed through the different parts Lord Rahl explained the different names of the plants, whether they were poisonous or edible, what kind of dirt they needed and any other trivia he could think of. When he guided her back to her cell her expression was thoughtful.

***

Kahlan sat on her bed and watched Tremmon work on his abdominal muscles and thought over the previous day with Lord Rahl. She was still stunned by what she had seen in that garden. Part of her rebelled at the orderly rows of plants so different from the way they would be found in nature. Yet there was an undeniable beauty to it.

Just as undeniable was the fact that Darken Rahl loved it. There were other emotions present too of course. He was proud of his ability to gather and care for so many different plants. He enjoyed working in the garden. At one point he had bent down and scooped up a handful of dirt to better demonstrate to her the difference between soil with a little clay and soil with a lot of clay. She had never thought of him as being the squeamish type but somehow she had always assumed he kept his hands clean in the literal sense if not the metaphorical one.

It made her uneasy.

She turned her thoughts instead to remembering the entrances and exits she had passed. She hadn't really expected her homemade weapon to work. Lord Rahl would have been suspicious if she hadn't tried something. She wasn't quite sure what she would have done if she had succeeded. Probably Confess a servant and demand to be guided out. Kahlan shuddered.

Next time she would be ready to make her escape. The third door from the left opposite the door to the gardens looked promising. She could make a dash for it. Any guards she encountered would be unlikely to attack her. She could Confess one and have him carry her out before an alarm went up.

***

Kahlan woke up to the sound of Lord Rahl opening the window in the door of her cell. She blearily looked up at the slit to the outside world. "It's still dark out."

"Your powers of observation never cease to amaze me." Darken Rahl said. "I have a surprise for you."

Kahlan mentally repeated to herself that her seventy seventh day might be the one she escaped. It sounded pathetic. "Is this the kind of surprise I'll like or the kind that will make me want to wash my hands in your blood?"

"You already want to wash your hands in my blood." Lord Rahl showed no sign of concern. "First part is that you're going to have to take off all your clothes. I can't be letting you do this with weapons."

Kahlan blinked and rubbed her eyes. "You honestly expect me to-" Looking into his eyes she could see he did. "What's this about?"

"While I do need to protect my people from your powers why would I deny to them the benefit of your wisdom?" She found it unnerving how much he reminded her of Richard at that moment. The look on his face was strangely reminiscent of when Richard started cajoling her into saving people who were not on the agenda. "If you don't want me watching I can have one of my Mord Sith watch over you while you change."

"Change into what?" Kahlan asked suspiciously. He was far too happy about this to make her think it was anything other than a ploy.

Lord Rahl held up a dark red dress. "You must of course appear in the colors of my house."

"No." Kahlan surprised herself. She was more outraged than enraged by the suggestion.

"The matter I need your help with is a family feud going back five generations." Kahlan made herself keep eye contact with him a she spoke, looking for any shred of a lie. "Normally my solution would be to put them to death one by one until they stop fighting starting with the young adult men, then the elderly, then the women, the children and finally the mature adults who ought to know better. I'd rather see if you can give me an alternative to that." He paused. "If it helps, they aren't D'Haran. They're some of the people my father conquered."

Kahlan took a deep breath. She felt almost dizzy. "Why bring it to me now? Why not deal with it before?"

"They never did anything as bad as poisoning one of the local wells before. The local magistrates went to some effort to keep it hidden. Something about not trusting me to understand why they can't control their own town. I don't know which side started it or did the poisoning. I do want it to be over."

Kahlan looked into Lord Rahl's sincere blue eyes. "If I say no what will your first step be?"

"I'll pick two or three members of each family and kill them. Then I would put their heads on spikes at the crossroads."

Kahlan blinked and called on her training to calm her racing heartbeat. "If I help you then you will abide by my judgment."

"Yes. I would not insult you by asking for your opinion and then tossing it aside."

"No, there are many other insults you would give me but not that one."

Darken Rahl sighed loudly. "You have tried to kill me on more than one occasion. I see them less as insults and more as precautions against future occurrences."

"You're Lord Rahl. Your people are bound to you by magic. It isn't right." Kahlan found the words hollower than they would have been three months ago. Or even three weeks ago.

There was no mistaking the anger in Darken's eyes. "I never asked to be born Lord Rahl. But at least you admit that what the Confessors have tried to kill me for was not of my doing."

"You could abdicate." Kahlan said gently. The traitorous part of her mind wanted to soothe away his anger. What if he got so angry he never came back? Richard would come. But how soon?

Lord Rahl closed his eyes. "No. I couldn't." He opened them. "Was that a yes or a no?"

"Yes. I'd rather you watched me than the Mord Sith." She gave him a stern look. "As long as you keep your eyes from- Never mind. Stare all you want."

"Order your pet to stay and I'll open the door." Lord Rahl told her.

Once she was out in the hall Kahlan began removing her clothing. When she caught him staring at her breasts she made a go of stabbing him with the handle of a spoon she'd stolen a month before.

Lord Rahl moved quick enough to keep the blow from being disabling but not quickly enough to avoid it entirely. "Stop." He told her calmly.

She swiped a kick at him and almost missed the gesture he made with one hand. The drugged dart seemed to come out of nowhere. The last thing she heard was Tremmon calling for her. The last thing she saw was regret in Darken's eyes.

***

Kahlan was very groggy when she opened her eyes. Her eyelids were sticky and her mouth felt like it was filled with cotton. She sat up slowly, her head pounding. Looking down she saw that she was wearing a dark red gown that was of a more conservative cut than her Confessor's garb. Looking up she saw that she was in a chamber she'd never been in before.

"Ah, you're awake." Lord Rahl's voice rolled out smoothly. "Come, it's afternoon." He held out a bottle of water.

Kahlan took the bottle cautiously and sniffed it.

"I don't need to drug you again." Darken Rahl said tiredly. "I wish I hadn't had to do it the first time."

Kahlan took a careful sip and then another.

"I dressed you but I took no further liberties." Lord Rahl said, gazing into her eyes.

Kahlan stood with as much dignity as she could muster. "I'm ready."

"One more thing." Lord Rahl pulled out a Rada'Han. "I swear to you I will remove it again before I put you back in your cell."

Kahlan thought for a long moment. She thought of trying to attack him again but the skirts of the dress she was wearing weren't designed for that. She thought about sitting on the floor and refusing to go but that would be childish and selfish. Other people, her people, would pay if she did that. Kahlan lifted her hair away from her neck and tilted her chin.

Darken Rahl shook his head and held out the Rada'Han. "I want you to put it on yourself. Then I'll lock it."

Kahlan took the Rada'Han. Its metal surface warmed under her touch. She blinked back tears, took a steadying breath, and fastened it around her neck. She kept her eyes closed until she heard the key turn in the lock. "We are ready then?" her voice was almost even.

Lord Rahl nodded and moved her to where she needed to stand for the transport spell to work.

Kahlan looked around the new room. So much was happening after so many days of nothing that it was disorienting. But then she found the headspace she needed. She felt the mindset she used when hearing disputes slip into her despite the fact that her powers ended at her skin. Kahlan desperately tried to stop feeling grateful to Rahl for giving her this bit of familiarity, purpose.

He guided her to a carriage and they set off into the westering sunlight.

***

After two days of bumpy riding in the carriage Kahlan felt no small amount of relief at reaching their destination. Lord Rahl had allowed her to bathe alone each night and had packed more than one dress. He had even asked her which one she preferred. His solicitousness made her skin crawl.

"This is the well." Rahl told her.

"I can see that," she said coolly. They were standing in a field under a tree with several members from each family and the municipal leaders gathered around.

"And here are Rola and Brayton the leaders of the family to the west of the town and these are Fiera and Norton from the east." He continued as if she hadn't spoken.

Kahlan ignored their nervous obeisances in favor of focusing on where they were looking. Two hours of questioning later she knew who had married who over the last century and whether or not they had permission from their Elders but nothing more about the crime that had brought her there beyond what Lord Rahl had told her.

"Let me talk to Brayton's youngest son." She demanded, not of Rahl but of the soldiers.

They looked to Rahl who waved them to do as she bid with a bored expression. Neither they nor she looked particularly convinced that he wouldn't have ordered their heads off if they hadn't checked with him.

The soldiers brought back an eight year old boy. The temptation to try to use him to get a message back to the resistance was strong. She firmly reminded herself that she didn't know if his parents were rebels or not even as part of her whispered that she didn't really care. So she also reminded herself that doing that here and now would likely get the boy and his entire extended family killed.

"Hello, Doric." She said gently, smiling.

The boy mumbled something.

"You're going to have to speak up if you want Lady Kahlan to hear you." Darken Rahl said.

She glared venomously at him. "I'm-"

"Not able to Confess anyone." Lord Rahl's attention was so conspicuously on his nails that he had to be looking elsewhere.

Kahlan noticed one of the farmboys twitch on the word Confess. "You," she called to him. "What do you know of this?"

"Me? Nothing." A young man who looked like an older cousin or brother slapped him on the back of the head. "Your Ladyship."

"Come here." She ordered. The older brother or cousin all but shoved him forward and Kahlan examined the way he moved. "What's your name?"

"Bernal." The young man said sullenly.

"You know who did it." Kahlan's gaze bore into his.

"No! No! I don't know anything-" Bernal wilted under Kahlan's attention.

"Bernal, if you don't tell me who then I can't help you or your family. Please let me help you." Kahlan's voice was full of compassion but with a hard undertone.

"It was Mirken."

Kahlan raised her eyebrows and turned to the crowd.

One of the town's councilmen looked appalled. "Mirken has been a pillar of the community. He has nothing to do with the feud."

"He said it while he was drinking. He said Da cheated him out of a bull calf and now Giral's after his daughter." Bernal said desperately.

"Giral is your older brother." Kahlan locked eyes with the young man who had sent Bernal forward. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I love Seerah. I don't want to testify against her father."

"Not even if it saves you and your brother from someone else’s punishment? I need the truth in order to give you justice." Kahlan remonstrated.

"Bernal overheard Mirken and told me." Giral's shoulders slumped. "That's all I know."

"Bring Mirken here." Kahlan demanded. She waited; still observing while the two soldiers Lord Rahl had sent went down to the town to bring back Mirken. Before they were all the way back a blonde young woman raced into the gathering, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Please don't hurt my father he was drunk. He didn't mean it! He's been leaving them extra milk ever since it happened."

Kahlan smiled gently at the young woman. "You must be Seerah."

"Yes, milady." Seerah dropped into an awkward curtsey.

"Your father has been leaving extra milk or you have been leaving extra milk, Seerah?" Kahlan asked in the same tone she used with skittish horses.

Seerah sobbed and looked down at her feet. "Me."

"How long has this been going on, Seerah? How long has he been drinking and hurting other people?" Kahlan's heart went out to the scared girl, trapped in a home with someone who would do something like poison a well.

"He's not so bad when he's sober." Seerah said plaintively.

"If a man does bad things when he drinks and knows it that means he has a responsibility not to drink when he's tempted to do bad things." Kahlan said gently. "Think of the hurt he has caused. Honesty is the only way to make it better."

Seerah kept her eyes on her shoes. "Since mother died." She rolled up a sleeve and displayed a bruise in the shape of a hand.

Giral looked horrified. "Why didn't you tell me?"

The guards arrived with Mirken as Seerah was shaking her head and collapsing into Giral's arms.

"What's that lout doing with my daughter?" Mirken demanded. "What're you doing here, girl? Who's minding the hands?"

"Mirken, you have been accused of poisoning this well." Kahlan informed him.

"What? I did no such thing." Mirken blinked hard. "Who said such a thing? He's a liar! Is it him?" Mirken pointed at Giral. "I told you to stay away from him, girl."

"Come here," Kahlan ordered. "Did you poison the well?"

"No!" Mirken bellowed.

Kahlan stared into the man's brown eyes for a long moment. "Let me think." She paced for a few minutes. "Is it possible that at some point you got so drunk you blacked out?"

"Maybe but I never done nothing like that before." Mirken looked around. "I still want to know who accused me."

"Someone overheard you talking about poisoning this well and how you were cheated out of a bull calf." Kahlan said calmly. She felt like she should be annoyed at this turn of events. Instead all she felt was that she was doing what she had been born to do.

"Oh I've talked about it. I've also talked about burning down the inn when they overcharge me. But only when I'm home." He stopped suddenly, disbelief coloring his words. "Are you telling me my daughter said it?"

Kahlan looked at the pair of brunet young men. "Bernal, how exactly did you hear?"

"Why you little soul sucker!" It took three of the guards to restrain Mirken.

"I was watching out while Giral visited Seerah." Bernal shrank away from Mirken.

"Seerah, look at me. Was your father in that night?" Kahlan asked carefully, suspecting the answer before it came out of Seerah's mouth.

"I don't know." Seerah shied further into Giral's arms.

"Seerah. I need an honest answer. Look in my eyes. I don't need to Confess you to know you're lying." Kahlan's heart sank.

Seerah gulped. "I'm not!"

"It was the three of us!" Bernal burst out.

"Be quiet!" Giral ordered.

"Seerah wanted to get away from her father and Giral wanted to marry her. They-" A stern look from Kahlan made him revise, "We thought that the town would assume it was part of the feud since it was our well. After they doled out the punishment we were going to make Seerah's father let her marry Giral."

Kahlan watched Seerah and Giral while she listened to Bernal. "That story sounds like the truth. There is much blame to go around. The two families for feuding, the Council of Elders for not dealing with the feud sooner, Mirken for the manner in which he treats his daughter, and these three for the poisoning of the well. It took all of you to make this possible."

Lord Rahl stood like an uncoiling snake. Kahlan realized she had forgotten about his presence. "For now I will be satisfied if the three saboteurs are sent to the mines to work until they have paid off the damage. The Council is to investigate and determine that amount. Before you get too comfortable I'm going to have the number independently investigated by my troops. If the discrepancy is more than twenty percent then Elders will be punished. If the difference is less than twenty percent they will be averaged. As for the families; if I have to come back here again for this feud or anyone involved in it I will make sure I don't need to come back a third time."

Kahlan blinked. That was a long way from killing random people and putting their heads on pikes though she supposed he hadn't really discarded that option.

"Does that please you, Lady Kahlan?" Lord Rahl smiled at her.

"I would suggest that in the future the Elders fine the heads of both families whenever the feud is furthered." She made herself bow her head. "That way my Lord need not come out here but may be kept up to date."

"Then this is my judgment." Lord Rahl told them.

Kahlan left the town behind both mentally and physically. She felt the certainty of her role as Confessor fading away too with each mile. After the stop for the midday meal Lord Rahl surprised her by climbing into the carriage to opposite her. From what she had seen and heard he seemed to enjoy the open air.

"Thank you." He told her sincerely.

"For what? You blackmailed me into it." Kahlan told him angrily. She was grateful to her enemy. It was a betrayal to her cause.

"You still could have said no. So I'm thanking you." Darken Rahl said calmly.

Kahlan couldn't make herself say anything so she nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

Darken Rahl turned the key in the lock and removed the Rada'Han from the Mother Confessor's neck. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" He ignored her glare and pocketed the collar in his robe. She looked lovely in black and red just like he'd known she would. Backing out of the room before Tremmon could remove the gag from her mouth and the bindings on her hands he turned to Tremmon. "She's all yours."

As he shut the door he heard her start yelling. "Where's my dress?!"

Darken Rahl carefully opened the window. "You tried to attack me."

"Where's my dress?" Kahlan tossed three dark red dresses from the trunk he'd had brought in while they were gone.

"Those are your dresses." He told her softly. "If you hadn't tried to attack me I would have left you the white one. As it is I could hardly let that go unpunished. Attacking me on the way to the garden was understandable. I have been lenient but I am not a fool."

"You're a fool if you think you can defeat the Prophecy." Kahlan snarled.

"I am Lord Rahl. I have more powers at my disposal than your Seeker can guess." Rahl snapped the window shut and strode back down the corridor. He didn't relax until he reached his own room. Stretching out on the bed he took a deep breath to steady himself. Marching back down there with an Agiel would destroy all the groundwork he had just laid.

Instead he thought of Giller. Despite the months since his friend's death Darken Rahl still sometimes thought of going to his journeybook to check on the progress of whatever magical experiment the wizard had thought up. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone but his friend's advice had been quite useful on occasion. It was why he put up with impudence from Giller that anyone else would have been disciplined for. The image of Giller bleeding on the floor, impaled by his own tools was something Darken Rahl would never forget. He wasn't sure if it was better or worse than never finding Demmin Nass's body.

Lord Rahl forced himself back to thinking about Giller. He tried to imagine what the wizard would advise him to do. The obvious answer was that Giller would ask to experiment on the Mother Confessor. Barring that, Giller would suggest a light touch.

Asking the Mord Sith would lead to offers of training. They were very eager to serve him as they had been brought up to do. Darken Rahl smiled. His father would be rolling over in his grave if he could see what Darken had done with the Mord Sith. Once, only D'Haran girls had been chosen to become Mord Sith because of their bond to the Rahl line. It was Giller who had suggested taking girls from the conquered provinces for training.

Training wasn't what was needed here. He had to keep reminding himself of that. If he could just find the right leverage then she would be his. He could have her at his side. He could have her want to be at his side. He could make her choose him over Richard. Then the Midlands would see his claim as legitimate, their children would not need to grow up surrounded by fear, and maybe the prophecy could be averted. He didn't want to have to fight her every step of the way and he probably couldn't do it fighting her every step of the way. He had to find some way to make her see that helping him was what was best for her people.

Darken Rahl's thoughts turned to the progress of his plan so far. It wasn't great timing that the feud opportunity had come up so soon after the garden but it had worked anyway despite the attempt she had made to run for it while naked and collared on the way back. With any luck rumors would get back to the Seeker that Lady Kahlan had sat in judgment at the side of Lord Rahl.

***

Darken Rahl gave the Mother Confessor four days to sit and think. When he next saw her she had taken the dresses and torn them into strips. She was wearing a shift and busily braiding them into ropes when he cleared his throat. "I see you've found a hobby."

The Mother Confessor didn't look up as she kept braiding. "I want my dress back."

"So I see. Unfortunately, I do believe wanton destruction without permission warrants punishment." He pitched his voice to sound regretful. "Had you behaved yourself I might have agreed to your request."

"And what is my punishment?" The Mother Confessor's eyes flashed angrily. "Am I to be tied up? Are you going to drag me into the hall and beat me? Press an Agiel against my throat?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Darken Rahl saw her head come up, eyes blazing. "No, no. You misunderstand me. You'd like it if I treated you the way you think I should. If I hurt you it'd be easier to tell yourself that standing against me is the right thing."

"It is the right thing!" The Mother Confessor exclaimed. "You hurt people, take their freedom, your troops have killed thousands, you torture and kidnap. You unleashed a magical plague not to mention those magical weapons that killed everyone around them."

"Tell me," Darken Rahl said calmly, "which one of those three poisoners would you have Confessed?"

Kahlan scowled. "I didn't need to Confess anyone."

"If I and my soldiers had not been there which one would you have Confessed? Giral?" Darken Rahl gave her a piercing look. "Or would it have been Seerah? She was probably the driving force behind it all."

"Even if I agreed with you about my powers, what I do is no excuse for what you do." She said tightly.

"Does that apply to the Seeker as well?"

"Of course." The Mother Confessor said dismissively. "Richard hasn't done anything."

"Anything like using the power of Orden to order my men to kill each other? Men they had fought and slept and eaten beside for weeks if not years. Anything like ordering you to beat Denna to death?" Lord Rahl watched her expression darken.

"He was possessed by the power of Orden." The Mother Confessor defended the Seeker.

"Was he or is that what your side chooses to believe?" Darken Rahl traced a finger along the edge of the window. "If I could assemble the Boxes of Orden, then so could someone else. I do not want the boxes in the Seeker's hands. I did not want the boxes in Milena's hands or those of whoever might take it into their heads to plunder Kelabra."

"You want it for yourself." She set her jaw stubbornly.

"Yes. Of course I do. If the power exists then someone will use it. I'd rather it be me."

"The power of Orden corrupts whoever wields it. I can't imagine what it would turn you into."

This was a question Giller had raised more than once. "I've had some time to think on that. And my conclusion is, how do we know? Surely, if someone used the boxes they would have been invincible. Even now we would have heard of that kind of success. And if the boxes were not intended to be used then what possible reason could there be for making them?" Giller had speculated that they may have made in order to prove a point. Darken Rahl couldn't see any point besides applying the magic. Such an artifact must have taken a great deal of time and preparation. Even Giller admitted that when he came up with an idea he wanted to test it to prove it worked.

"And the conclusion you've come to is that the records are lying." Kahlan sounded cautiously curious in spite of herself.

"Yes." Darken Rahl felt an excitement spurring him onward to prove her skepticism wrong. "The wizards from longer than a thousand years ago didn't just make the Boxes of Orden, they made the Confessors, the Seeker and many other equally powerful magics that we have lost over time. Giller's work was to regain some of that lost ground. I do regret the way that ended." Those had been two of his best Mord Sith. Not the most original women and not independent enough to use as leaders for the others but solid fighters nonetheless. A shame to let Lieutenant Bram's experience go to waste as well.

"You regret not killing Richard." The Mother Confessor scoffed.

"Is there some reason I shouldn't want to kill the person prophesied to kill me?"

"Because he's the Seeker! He's going to bring peace and justice to the Midlands."

"The era that created the Confessors and Seekers also created the bond between the Lord Rahl and the people of D'Hara." Darken Rahl laughed bitterly. "Killing me won't free D'Hara. One of my father's bastards would inherit the bond and then your Seeker would have to chase after him. All killing me will do is bring anarchy to D'Hara."

"Maybe the next Lord will be better." She insisted.

"By better I assume you mean will either allow your Seeker to run him through or comes back to D'Hara and sits patiently behind the borders while the Midlands prepare to invade." Darken Rahl felt his control on his temper fraying again.

The Mother Confessor smelled blood. "Panis Rahl's attack on the Midlands was unprovoked. We were just defending ourselves. You, Darken Rahl, continued his conquest after his death and now you claim to have been defending yourself. This is what Confessors were made for. Without us everyone in the Midlands would be defending themselves from their neighbors into a civil war."

"And you do it through fear, just as I do." He ignored the noise of protest she made. "Yes, you do. People aren't lining up to be Confessed even in order to bed lovely Confessors."

"We do it by finding the truth no matter how hidden." The Mother Confessor glared.

"People fear the truth. The truth is that they are pathetic, scrambling and weak. The truth is that they are petty and selfish by nature. It's only when order is imposed on them that they start to make up words like honor and dignity in order to justify their actions. There's that word. Justify. As much as the Seeker may stir the people with talk of justice what they really want is to be told they're justified in what they do. Confessors come into a village and reveal the jealousies, insecurities and violence that underlie every community. That's why they need to keep moving, is it not?"

"We keep moving because even before you started hunting us down there weren't enough of us to be everywhere we're needed."

Darken Rahl silently regarded the Mother Confessor for a long time. When she started to fidget he smiled. "So the people who need freedom welcome with open arms a woman who tells them what to do."

"No. No. No." Kahlan's hands clenched around the fabric in her lap. "You do not do that. You do not compare women who sacrificed their lives trying to free the Midlands from you with what you do."

For a moment Lord Rahl thought he might have misstepped. "As punishment for what you've done to the dresses I gave you you'll eat whatever you're served."

***

Seven days passed before Darken Rahl next visited the Mother Confessor. He had made sure that while the food she had been served was not of her choosing it wasn't starvation rations either. He needed something available to punish her with if she continued to misbehave.

"Would you care to accompany me to the gardens?" he asked her before she could get out whatever speech she had practiced. A crafty look came and went so quickly that Lord Rahl wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been looking for it. "And I'd like you to bring Tremmon this time."

"Why?" Her wariness pleased Darken Rahl.

"I have something to show him." Rahl smiled. "Besides, he deserves a treat after he stayed exactly where you told him the whole time you were gone."

The Mother Confessor flinched noticeably. Darken wasn't sure if she were genuinely reacting or making him think she was so he'd underestimate her. "I don't see why that should matter to you," she said calmly.

"It will give the staff a chance to change the mattress and air out the room." Darken Rahl's smile was a parody of a gracious host.

Kahlan stood, an admission she was going to the garden. "I suppose there will be consequences if I Confess one of your bodyguards."

"As I do not wish to overcrowd your room," he ignored her snort, "I was thinking of having you decide which form of execution he would get."

The Mother Confessor's teeth clicked together as she shut her mouth. "Fine, lead the way to the gardens."

As he walked up the stairs Darken Rahl contemplated which of the labyrinthine routes to take. "I'm afraid I was sidetracked during out last conversation," he interrupted Kahlan's concentration.

The Mother Confessor turned his direction with a grudging expression. "About why you want the Boxes of Orden."

"Yes. It occurred to me," Darken Rahl led them down one of the stone corridors different from either time he'd let Lady Kahlan out of her chamber, "that if those wizards had created not only the Boxes but also the Confessors and the Seekers perhaps they weren't describing what the magic does but what they want everyone to think it does. The Seeker is the only one with an instinctive understanding of how to read the Book of Counted Shadows." He took another turn to distort Lady Kahlan's sense of direction. "For everyone else it requires study. If the wizards of that era could alter the Seeker's abilities in that way they might also be some of the few who could lie to him."

"I saw what it did to Richard." She whispered firmly.

The Mother Confessor was still in her shift so he decided a trip through one of the more public areas of the Keep was warranted to see how she would react. He kept an eye on her as she padded along barefoot, barely noticing. "His mother had just died I understand. His sister had just risked herself to get their mother back and Denna had lied to him. That could only have happened if he wanted to believe the lie."

"Is there a point to this?" she snapped.

"Did you never consider the possibility that what was unleashed there came from within the Seeker?" Darken Rahl's tone was mild and curious.

"No. Richard isn't like that. He'd kill himself before risking that again." The Mother Confessor said vehemently.

Darken Rahl was expecting the flood of rage that ripped through him at her defense but it still took an incredible amount of willpower not to grab her and fling her against a wall. Luckily he didn't have to answer because they turned to the garden and sitting there on a bench was Yara. While the little girl ran toward her papa Darken Rahl took advantage of Lady Kahlan's surprise to get in close enough for a come along hold in case he needed it.

She turned horrified eyes on Darken Rahl and sputtered.

Lord Rahl reached out and touched an overhanging branch. He loved this tree because it used to be a vine when he was very small. As it grew it thickened and hardened into wood. The year before he killed his father he had nearly killed it by overpruning the twisted branches. The tree had recovered. More often than not Lord Rahl's plants recovered from the way he treated them. It was more than he could say for people.

"You're a bastard." Kahlan was giving him her white lipped look of outrage.

"No. More's the pity." He let slip more than he meant to and tore off the leaf in his hand as a reminder. Lady Kahlan looked taken aback. He wondered what she saw. Darken Rahl's lips twitched as he remembered the look on Demmin's face when he'd seen what Darken had done to the tree. That was the day they'd begun their scheming about how best to kill his father.

She turned toward Tremmon and Yara. "Is that what you wanted me to see?"

"Yes." Darken Rahl felt inexplicably weary. "It's an anniversary for me. I'm sorry I'm not my usual self right now." The sight of Kahlan standing in his garden with her hands on her hips and wearing nothing but a shift made him want to smile and scream and throw himself on her all at the same time. He closed his eyes. "Kill him. Let the family have him back."

"You would send him into battle. You sent him into my cell knowing what I might do to him. How is this different?" She steps closer to him.

"There are deserters from my armies. People still have choices under my command." Darken Rahl told her, watching without seeming to watch.

"If you had the power of Orden that would stop." She whispers, closer still.

"If I had the power of Orden I could make him happy about it. And his daughter, his wife and his son." Darken Rahl countered.

"If I Confessed you then you would be happy with the way things are."

"Ah, but I've seen several people Confessed by you. Somehow they never travel with you. While I would be happy, such abandonment does not seem to me to be the same thing. My servants told me how Tremmon suffered without you."

Kahlan kneed Darken in the crotch and took off running. One of the Mord Sith in Lord Rahl's bodyguard detachment pulled out a blowpipe and stuck the Mother confessor in the back with a drugged dart.

***

_Kahlan pulled Richard along behind her. Zedd's house was just ahead. Just a few more steps and she'd have the Seeker at the Wizard's for healing. Snake vine venom was dangerous. She knocked on the door and Zedd opened it, scowling at her.Kahlan woke up screaming._

_"I brought Richard. Please help him Zedd." Kahlan looked desperately into Zedd's face. He was the Wizard, he had to fix this._

_"That's not Richard." Zedd's disapproval rocked her back on her heels._

_"Of course it is." She dragged Richard onto the bed in Zedd's cottage. "Heal him."_

_Zedd glared at her as he began the incantation for fighting snake vine venom. Something was wrong. The smoke that rose wasn't in the shape of a vine but a tree. Kahlan refused to pull away, her Seeker needed her. When Zedd finished the spell Richard's face morphed into Darken Rahl's._

"Mistress!" Tremmon hovered over her, half his face covered with a purpling bruise.

"I'm fine," she assured him and herself. She looked up at the opening and realized she'd lost track of how many days she'd been in the People's Palace. Somehow that was worse than losing her clothes. Her old self was slipping away and this new person was willing to admit to missing Lord Rahl's company sometimes. Kahlan knew she was in trouble.

Darken Rahl couldn't lie to her but he could manipulate her. He dangled hope in front of her constantly. Hope of freedom, of making a difference, and occasionally hope that he would change his mind. That had to be what the conversation by the tree was about. He had vulnerabilities and he showed them to Kahlan as if he were taunting her with her inability to use them. She sighed. Fighting back physically wasn't getting Kahlan anywhere. She needed to fight back mentally and not just the lashing out she had been doing.

Kahlan had made him lose control once so she could do it again. She just had to try to figure out what her opponent was thinking, how he was thinking, and what to say to convince him to let her go.

***

On what might have been her ninety-sixth day or her ninety-seventh Kahlan woke up to the faint rasp the window made when it was opened. She looked towards it and didn't try to hide the hope she felt when she saw him. It was hope for an opening or weakness but he might not know that.

"Are you suffering any ill effects from the sedative?" Darken Rahl asked courteously.

"No. It's given me some time to think." Kahlan sat up and walked quietly towards the door, focusing on his face. She began looking into his eyes to see his heart better.

"About what?" Faint surprise lines deepened around his mouth and eyes.

"You keep pressing me about my father. What was yours like?" Kahlan held her hands together to keep them from trembling with excitement.

"He was Lord Rahl. He ruled with an iron fist and no one dared to question him." The mix of fear, admiration and anger Kahlan saw boiling barely under the surface in the current Lord Rahl surprised her. "I believe you know that already."

"As I said, I've had time to think. When I visit a village most of the time I don't Confess anyone. They agree to abide by my ruling and I listen while they talk. I listen to each person's perspective and try to discover what they aren't saying as much as what they are. When you abducted me I- behaved in a manner that would have disappointed my teachers. I assumed because you were evil I shouldn't have to try to see things from your perspective. I am willing to work now to rectify that." Now something to sweeten it, make him open up and reveal his weaknesses. "We were taught that the ability to Confess people is a useful tool and weapon but does not take the place of thinking and talking things through."

Darken Rahl's expression had become thoughtful. "Do you know how I learned of the Prophecy?"

Kahlan shook her head, clamping her teeth together so she wouldn't say something to ruin it.

"My father told me." Darken Rahl smiled bitterly. "He told me more than once in fact. Usually after he'd been feasting. He told me that one day he would have a bastard who would be the Seeker and destroy me using the power of Orden."

Kahlan felt like she'd gone from swimming through a still pond to being tossed about on an ocean.

"He thought it was funny." Darken Rahl told her with a look that said he was examining her the way she'd seen village boys examine worms.

"Richard." That was the only word she was able to get out.

"Is my half brother. Yes."

Kahlan closed her eyes so she didn't have to see into Darken Rahl's heart anymore. Pieces she hadn't wanted to see fell into place. She heard the window close and sank to the floor as her heart hammered against her temples.

***

Kahlan went through her usual workout. It wasn't the same as practicing with real knives but it gave her body something to do. Everyone in the midlands knew Panis Rahl had been a monster just as everyone in the Midlands knew Darken Rahl was a monster. Panis Rahl had liked power, liked sex and hadn't seen any reason to delay his own gratification at any point. The stories told about what he'd done to the Mord Sith who had helped him lose his virginity were hair raising. The Confessors had no reason to doubt the stories about what Panis Rahl did to the prisoners he caught, especially women.

Then Darken Rahl had assassinated his father and taken over his father's empire. Everyone Kahlan knew assumed it must have been because Darken Rahl wanted to take over his father's position and wasn't willing to wait until the man was dead. After the massacre at Brennidon everyone had been more than willing to think that Darken Rahl was as much of a monster as his father if not worse.

Thinking of the fear she always saw in his eyes Kahlan thought about Dennee's son. To try to convince Richard that killing the infant was right Zedd had said something that now sent chills down Kahlan's spine. There had been a time when Darken Rahl, the feared tyrant of D'Hara, had been a helpless child. Applying her Confessor training Kahlan could see that some part of him was still that helpless child who knew that the people who should be protecting him cared more about their own pleasure than his well being.

In her travels she had met other people who were like this. There were men and women who needed to dominate in order to convince themselves of their own importance. None of them had the power of Lord Rahl but she had been trained to consider them mistaken rather than the essence of evil. Her teachers had made it clear that judgments needed to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of the people doing the disputing in order for the judgments to work. Sometimes pronouncing someone guilty of murder was fairly simple compared to trying to solve an argument over who owned a cow.

Kahlan realized with distaste that she didn't just feel empathy for Darken Rahl. She felt sorry for him. Not for the dictator who unleashed the Fire Fever but for the child who had been raised to regard Mord Sith as normal and oppression as the only real kind of power. She tried to tell herself that feeling pity for him was not wrong it was what she had been trained to do if not what she had been taught. She knew that was true.

Not all of Kahlan believed it. In a tiny corner of her mind there lived a bound five year old girl who insisted it meant she was bad.


	4. Chapter 4

Darken Rahl picked up the Agiel and pressed it firmly against Raina's side just under her ribs. He counted to five while the Mord Sith shuddered and moaned. He pulled the Agiel away and stroked her cheek gently. "Now, tell me again. What happened?"

"The Seeker, he..." Raina gulped for air. "His Confessor touched the garrison commander." Silent tears coursed down her cheeks.

"And how long did it take you to notice?" Rahl's voice was deceptively mild.

"Fifteen days."

"And what happened during those fifteen days?"

"All the prisoners were released, the soldiers were reassigned, and they took our maps." Raina stiffened and jerked against her restraints as Rahl traced the Agiel up her spine.

"Why didn't you notice sooner?"

"I was distracted!" Raina panted, her expressive eyes full of fear. "I was chasing the wizard."

"Why didn't you ask your sisters for help?" Rahl gently wiped away her tears.

"I thought if I caught the wizard you would reward me." Raina looked at him pleadingly.

Rahl held the Agiel against her belly long enough for her to start crying out that she was sorry. He stroked her dark hair gently, its unbound waves gone ratty with sweat. "I know you are." He stroked her neck. "But I can't let such behavior go unpunished."

"Please, my lord! I'll do better!"

"I know you will." He kissed her forehead. "I'm giving you to Mistress Constance for a few days to help you learn." Darken Rahl kissed her mouth, knowing he held little interest for her.

Raina gasped. "As my Lord wishes."

Lord Rahl nodded and left Raina hanging in the restraints and orders to keep her posting and Berdine’s different for at least three more months. He walked down to the ground floor and to a courtyard he didn't visit very often. Hours of standing while he questioned Raina had left him in the mood for some quiet contemplation.

This particular courtyard was filled with memorials for D'Haran generals who had fallen in battle. A month after Demmin Nass had failed to report in Lord Rahl had ordered Nass's name added to the list. He knew his friend would never have failed to send word for that long unless he were dead. Lord Rahl sat on a bench, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

His earliest clear memory of Demmin Nass was Nass's hand over his mouth. He'd been maybe five and Demmin must have been around twelve and it was possible Demmin had saved Darken's life. It hadn't been the first time they met. That was so long ago Darken couldn't remember it at all. Like his mother. It seemed like everything important happened before he could remember it. It hadn't been when his father had told him about the Prophecy but when Darken had realized what it meant.

_"My father he-" Darken sniffled. "It's not fair!"_

_Demmin quickly clapped a hand over Darken's mouth and stared the child in the eyes. "He's Lord Rahl. Whatever he does is fair."_

Darken had always been smaller and faster than Demmin, quicker in both body and mind. But Demmin had been stronger. A good battle, a good drink and a good tumble were all he needed to be happy. He'd never understood why Darken's needs were more complicated but he had done his best to keep Darken alive. Not just because Darken was heir or because Darken could provide him with opportunities for pleasure but because he actually seemed to enjoy Darken's company.

Of course, that had taken awhile. At first Demmin had felt sorry for Darken. General Allic Nass had served Panis Rahl for many years and had decided his son should do the same for the next Lord Rahl. The age difference made Darken seem pathetic next to Demmin but he'd tried to play games with Demmin anyway until he'd been old enough to see that Demmin was humoring him. Then even Darken had to admit he'd been a little snot.

Until Panis Rahl had decreed it was time for Darken to know what battle was like and had assigned Demmin to look after him.

***

Lord Rahl opened the window to Kahlan's cell and looked in on her. She barely paused between strokes as she brushed out her hair. "You weren't lying," she said quietly.

Darken Rahl shook his head slowly. "No. That was the truth. Is the truth."

"Richard is nothing like you." She whispered intensely.

"You would know better than I." He watched every twitch of her facial muscles. "All I know about him is that he's supposed to kill me and has been making trouble for me and my subordinates ever since he was named."

"And what do you know about me?" The Mother Confessor asked, strain showing around her eyes.

"You're a Confessor so your mother must have been one. Dennee Amnell is your sister and we held her for some months as she was with child." He watched her bristle and keep it under control. "You were the Confessor who traveled with the Seeker and Wizard Zorander for many months. That means you're special. You are now the Mother Confessor which means your fellow Confessors recognize your specialness. Since they are few they must already be either very smart or very lucky. That they chose you says quite a lot. You have the all too rare skill of being able to admit when you're wrong. You are capable of both compassion and mercy and anger and vengeance. You care more for your companions than you do for yourself. You are able to be patient but prefer action."

"You've given this some thought." Kahlan sounded unsettled.

"Knowing about my enemies is a necessary part of defeating them." Darken Rahl's lips quirked into an almost smile. "Have you ever been in pitched battle? Not one of those ambushes the Resistance is so fond of but a battle with soldiers rushing at each other with their weapons drawn. It's quite a different thing."

Kahlan's look turned wary. "My sisters and I have been forced into those by your soldiers."

"Then you know why I wish to avoid them. Pitched battle is messy. Soldiers dying all around, their bodily fluids of all varieties leaking out into the open while there's this heat from all the bodies pressing together." Darken Rahl closed his eyes. "And the noise. Men and horses screaming, impossible to tell which is which." He opened his eyes once more. "Far better to negotiate peace where one can."

"The power of Orden is not about negotiating peace. It's about enforcing your will on everyone else."

"I've been Lord Rahl for twenty years. I've been searching for the power of Orden for not quite a year." Darken Rahl tilted his head curiously. "Does no one on your side ever try to plan more than three days ahead?"

"But Queen Milena-"

He shrugged eloquently. "Queen Milena's family had a box for generations. I could have begun negotiations much sooner than I did. I should have but I didn't feel it necessary until there was a chance the Seeker might get his hands on them."

"But why?" The Mother Confessor looked genuinely confused.

Darken Rahl was more than pleased but he kept it hidden. The rebels didn't ask why; they either demanded explanations for perceived atrocities or fought first and never got around to asking questions later. "Why what?" a gentle question that could only lead to harsh revelations.

"Why didn't you want the power of Orden?" Kahlan was frowning in earnest. "You could make anyone do anything you want. You would always be sure your orders were obeyed."

"Well, the pristinely ungifted would still be able to harm me but more than that is something that you of all people should be able to understand." Darken Rahl paused a little for dramatic effect. "You could make people obey you whenever you wanted; the wizard, the Seeker. You could settle down somewhere small and bind the people to you." She pulled away from him as if she had been stung. "Which would you rather do? Be with people who have to be directed in every small thing but are absolutely loyal or have some originality from people who might betray you."

"That's why the Midlands has never tried to become an empire. We're happy with each area being left to its own way of doing things." Kahlan was obviously trying to sound less excited than she was.

"If I thought that view would extend to allowing my people to stay with the families they had made and continuing to eat grain grown in the Midlands and above all not trying to assassinate me I would have offered peace to my neighbors. As it is some of them allow the rebels to camp inside their borders and raid my troops. Some have trade sanctions against me. It took less than a month from my coronation for me to be denounced as evil." The skin around Darken Rahl's eyes tightened. "Where I can negotiate peace, I do. If I can't then I trick people into it. If both of those fail then I occupy them if they outwardly oppose me."

"So you admit to tricking people."

"People, armies, sometimes even entire governments. I really don't have the men to spare if I don't have to spend them." In response to Lady Kahlan's baffled expression he smiled kindly. "Surely you've noticed that nearly every possible able bodied man has been conscripted."

"Why not just stop the war?" Both of them already knew several reasons why not that had nothing to do with evil.

"What is it about hundreds of able bodied men who are suddenly without employment being loosed on the countryside that would be good for the Midlands or D'Hara?"

"Use them to rebuild." She answered swiftly. "Put them to work building bridges, levees, roads and repairing towns that have been burned down."

"Which brings us to the next objection. With what money? The benefit of having soldiers in occupied territory is that they are more relaxed about their pay when they can take it from the locals." He was not unhappy to see disgust in her eyes. It meant she wasn't hiding her reaction from him. "Without conquering more kingdoms I would not have been able to pay them for the past few years. Before you get self righteous remember that it would be your people they would be raiding for food and... company."

"They're already doing that." The Mother Confessor shot back.

"Yes but they are disciplined if caught. I'll get the records from General Egremont for you. Yes they're probably doctored but not by me." He gave her a grim smile. "I'll give you the ones I work from. Assume the numbers are inflated for pay and deflated to make commanders look good. Not to mention that men who have seen combat are more difficult to manage than ones who haven't. Making work crews out of them would not necessarily be a good thing for their morale."

"You mean they'd kill the way you taught them to."

"Yes but they wouldn't just kill soldiers. They'd get drunk and start fights in towns that never really welcomed them in the first place. Some would get the idea they could make better money at highway robbery. This is what I mean when I say that defeating me would only spread anarchy. Former soldiers who lost comrades would go looking for revenge." He gave her another grim smile. "There's a reason I don't want them in D'Hara."

Kahlan snarled. "You want us to be stuck with them."

"I'm explaining why even if your rebel friends laid down their arms tomorrow, which I sincerely doubt they would, the war still would not be over."

"Send them back to D'Hara and let the D'Harans deal with them."

"Not all of them are D'Haran. Some are children of D'Harans who were born in the Midlands. The Midlands really are a much nicer place to live." Darken's gaze became unfocused. "D'Hara is a very harsh country. That's why my father invaded the Midlands, so he could have all the luxuries your people grew up surrounded by. What he didn't count on and didn't care about is that invading is a very different thing from raiding."

Kahlan opened her mouth with a retort but paused to think. "People bound to Lord Rahl settled in the Midlands. That made it different. You had to hold territory, not just loot it."

"It's a change we may never recover from."

***

Kahlan sat in her cell, quiet for a long time after Darken Rahl left. She thought of Lara, living for months surrounded only by her Confessed villagers. She thought of Serena, so convinced of her own rightness that she Confessed a Wizard of the First Order. The comparison between them and Lord Rahl was not as clear cut as she would have liked. If she were less honest with herself she would dismiss Lara and Serena as aberrations and in a way they were. They had been trained to avoid the traps of thinking of themselves as the sole owners of truth. They had been trained to respect individual freedom and taught how to see more than one side to a conflict. They should have known better.

The Mother Confessor was struck by how little she knew of her enemy. Information about him was quite plentiful and she suspected quite wrong. He was the son of Panis Rahl, a man best known for invading the Midlands. The rumors surrounding who Darken Rahl's mother was and how she died were numerous and wild. That his father had something to do with it was a common thread that might be true. Kahlan's teachers had not spoken much of Lord Rahl's childhood and somehow it had never seemed important. He was Lord Rahl, he was evil, and it was her duty to oppose him.

When he was in his late teens he had massacred the sons of Brennidon. A couple years later he had murdered his own father and taken over as Lord Rahl. From there he had dealt fast and hard with the generals and Mord Sith who saw Panis's assassination as a betrayal. Kahlan knew this because one of those generals had tried to get Serena to help him pull off a coup. Serena had used it as an example of how treacherous the D'Harans were. Once all the old guard were all dead or retired Darken Rahl had turned to his borders, pushing his armies towards Aydindril. Aydindril had fallen when Kahlan was fifteen.

Kahlan had to wait for the memory of Dennee's hand clutching hers when they saw the survivors to subside into the back of her mind.

After Aydindril Darken Rahl had targeted places of strength, breaking them down and putting them under his control. He had pushed and pushed until the Confessors had sent her and Dennee to Westland to find the Wizard who would name the Seeker. If she hadn't gone to Westland it was doubtful that Rahl would have tried to find the Boxes of Orden or to conquer Westland.

And she would never have met Richard.

"Mistress?" Tremmon gave her a worried look.

"It's nothing." Kahlan assured him as she tried to stop making noises that weren't sure whether they wanted to be sobs or peals of laughter.


	5. Chapter 5

Egremont raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Even so it grated on Darken Rahl's temper. "I want to prove to her that what she's been told about our army is lies." He shouldn't have to defend himself to his subordinates.

"By showing her the discipline records for our armies, my Lord?" Egremont spoke carefully.

"The fact that we have disciplinary actions and keep records of them ought to prove something." Rahl muttered. He was not going to explain further. Egremont and Darken had been working together for a long time. When Panis had decided he had had enough of his brat underfoot and it was high time for said brat to learn what it meant to be Lord Rahl it had been Egremont that Panis Rahl had assigned Darken to.

A memory of the expression in Jennsen's eyes when she had realized she could help him where his men had failed teased Darken as he realized that there was a lot he would do to keep Egremont around right now. It made him angry. "I'll call for you if I need you," he snapped.

Egremont beat a wise retreat.

***

Darken Rahl opened the window to Kahlan's room. "I have another dispute for you."

"Why hasn't Richard used the power of Orden?" the Mother Confessor demanded.

"He hasn't confided that knowledge with me." Darken Rahl said, not really bothered by the shift in conversation.

"You know something anyway. You always do." Kahlan glared at him.

"I know that when he realized you were gone there was a fight between him and the wizard." Darken Rahl spoke slowly. "The clearing was burned by Wizard's Fire. I've been spreading rumors in various places that lead him to think you're there. Sometimes he takes the bait and sometimes he doesn't. The new Confessor traveling with him seems to have found him only recently but he's become more aggressive since then. I don't know why he doesn't use the Boxes. All I can imagine is that it has something to do with you."

The Mother Confessor looked down at her hands.

"Now, I have a dispute you might be interested in or you could brood about your Seeker while your pet keeps you company."

She gave the Confessed D'Haran a pensive look. "Do I get my dress back?"

"No, you'll wear my colors while you travel with my men. It's safer that way."Darken said with authority. "It avoids the possibility that my men will mistake you for someone else and shoot you."

"Someone else like the Confessor with Richard." She said with a wry smile.

"Precisely." Rahl let the silence hang in the air until she replied.

"Fine, I will." Kahlan gave Tremmon instructions about eating and using the chamber pot while she was away and stripped off her shift. She stood nude in front of the door with her hands on her hips. "Well?"

Darken Rahl stepped back and opened the door after picking his jaw up off the floor.

"Tremmon, now." Kahlan said calmly.

The D'Haran bounded into the hall, knocking Darken Rahl over. The Mother Confessor followed on his heels and drove a kick into Darken's crotch. As Tremmon raced further down the hall the Mord Sith dropped him with three drugged darts. Darken Rahl didn't see much at that point as he simultaneously attempted to grab Kahlan's wrists and keep her fingernails out of his eyes. By the time the Mord Sith touched her with an Agiel Darken's dry heaves had subsided.

He stood with all the dignity he could muster and took the Rada'Han from his pocket. "Put it on."

Kahlan glared up at him. "It was worth a try."

"I imagine it was. Now, the Rada'Han." Darken Rahl tried to focus on something other than the misery on her face as she fastened the collar. Not only did they not have time for what he was thinking about but it would likely set back any progress he'd made in the last few weeks. Gently he slid the key into the lock and looked into the Mother Confessor's eyes as he felt the tumblers turn. He beckoned one of the Mord Sith forward with a chest. "Now the clothing. Since you're conscious this time you can do it."

The Mother Confessor stood in the hallway nude and collared but not at all naked. She slowly donned the garments he had picked out for her. When she was done she faced him, defiance in her eyes.

On a whim, Darken Rahl offered her his arm as if he were escorting her to a state function. She took it with a wary look and he hid another smile. "I'm not going to bite you." Not yet anyway.

"What is this dispute I'm going to investigate?" Kahlan asked as they made their roundabout way to the chamber Lord Rahl used to do his transport spells.

"It's an important one involving who leads one of the provinces we occupy." Darken Rahl smiled. "I don't want to tell you too much. I know just enough about the situation to know that your impartial guidance is needed."

"You want me to give one of your D'Haran governors legitimacy." Disbelief colored her words.

"Not quite. I want you to give one of my D'Haran selected Midlander governors the approval of the Mother Confessor of the Midlands." Darken Rahl corrected.

"D"Haran selcted- Oh. We're going there." Kahlan frowned. "Why did you let a Midlander remain in charge?"

"It was expedient. He was very helpful and it wasn't worth the man power to occupy the territory when most of its neighbors were wealthier. If we never offer anything to the people we invade then we won't get collaborators." Darken Rahl gave her a smoldering look. "I've found that a great deal of ruling is discovering what people desire and how to be the only one who can give it to them." He ignored Kahlan's glare. "Giller for example, he wanted to know how and why magic worked. He wanted to know everything that the wizards used to be able to do and how they did it. The Confessors placed limits and boundaries on what he could and could not do while I let him experiment to his heart's content as long as the results would benefit me."

"Those experiments were monstrous." The Mother Confessor said firmly.

"And yet neither of us would exist without such experiments."

Kahlan grunted. "If we aren't going to talk about the dispute, then what will we be doing on our way there?"

"You'll see." Darken's expression turned mischievous.

***

When they stepped into the carriage Darken Rahl courteously held the door open for the Mother Confessor. He watched the way she protected the books from the rain that poured down around them. Egremont hadn't been too pleased but Darken knew he had seen the value of giving Kahlan a distraction she might try to take with her.

"Would you join me?" Kahlan tilted her head at him curiously.

"Are you going to try to gouge my eyes out again?" Lord Rahl asked.

"Not tonight." Kahlan smiled. "Tomorrow is another day."

Darken Rahl pondered for a moment before getting into the carriage. He didn't like carriages even though he knew someone of his station was entitled to the anonymity they provided. They rattled loudly and bounced passengers around. These were the reasons he would have given if anyone asked. Well, if they asked in a way that he didn't take as a reason to cut out their tongues. The reality was he'd had a few too many trips trapped in a carriage with his father. The combination of confined space and boredom had not been a good one. Darken would much rather ride under the open sky even if it caused sunburns and calluses.

Kahlan twitched her skirts out of the way. "Maybe you can explain some of this to me. Is it written in code?"

"No, those are abbreviations. Vellum isn't abundant in D'Hara so we keep our records as short as possible." He looked over the top of the book and turned it around. "That means the soldier spent five days in the stockade for being drunk on duty. Name, rank, crime, length of punishment, and punishment type." He slid his finger along the row. "An empire's discipline is only as good as its records."

"General Colman said that." Kahlan sounded surprised.

"I studied in Aydindril for a time."

She flinched and her eyes became shuttered.

"You have so many books in the Midlands." He turned to the window, giving her privacy. "Even some of your merchants have one or two. Another reason our records are so brief and simple is because few besides the quartermasters and the highest ranking officers know how to read or write."

Kahlan turned to him with a searching look. "You have books. What about the journeybooks?"

"We have to train some of them to read and write. Most of the soldiers know how to use a weapon. Some of them know bits of other trades from what their parents did or from what they did before they were conscripted but mostly what they know how to do is be soldiers." Darken explained gently. "Mord Sith training includes reading and writing."

"Mord Sith." Kahlan's voice was filled with loathing and disgust. "How do you justify that? You take girls from their homes and beat them into ruthless monsters. You make them kill their own fathers."

"I'm sure that's how it looks to outsiders." Lord Rahl said calmly.

"What else would it look like?" Kahlan sounded like she wanted to be outraged but was too confused.

"What they undergo is necessary for them to be attuned to the Agiel. Without that they wouldn't be able to capture the magics of others. Think of what D'Hara would be like if the Gifted who cropped up weren't able to be managed. Without the training process and the Rahl bond they would not be able to do what they need to do." Lord Rahl explained what his father had told him, gazing at her steadily.

"They kill their own fathers." Kahlan gave him a look. "Then again, I guess you wouldn't see anything wrong with that."

Darken gritted his teeth. "They can't afford to have the distractions of family beyond their Sisters of the Agiel. Their loyalty must be absolute."

"Otherwise they might turn on the man who insists they need to be beaten?"

"Or fall in love with their prisoners." He whispered gently.

The Mother Confessor shivered and returned to the book. "Could you write me a key of the abbreviations for crimes and punishments?"

"Certainly. But not in here." The carriage hit a particularly hard bump as if to emphasize his point.

Kahlan picked up one of the other record books. "This one doesn't look military."

"Grain shipments."

Kahlan peered at him over the top of the ledger. "You're serious."

"I thought you might be interested to know. There's some merchant distortion and probably some bribery and stealing going on but those are the official records." Darken Rahl leaned back and closed his eyes. "Imports on the left, exports on the right."

For a long time there was only the sound of the horses' hooves churning mud and the rattle of the carriage. The frown between the Mother Confessor's eyebrows deepened as the minutes dragged by. The noise she made turning the pages got louder as she became more agitated. Darken Rahl called on his self control to keep from interrupting her.

"These provinces." She said at last, pointing to some names on the ledger. "What do they- How much livestock do they have and do you have older records? These are just last year."

"When we get back I'll give you more. You can look them over as much as you want." He promised her.

***

Lord Rahl found the proceedings to be not boring exactly but interminable. What he wanted to do was appoint a leader and kill everyone who disagreed with his decision. But he also wanted the Mother Confessor to feel some responsibility for the way this place was run. The only way to do that was to sit back and let her get as involved as she needed to be. Which was frustrating nearly beyond his endurance.

Currently she was investigating the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of the previous governor. Darken was of the opinion that anyone intelligent enough to kill a ruler and get away with it showed the brains, courage and initiative necessary to be a leader. If there was a murderer and he turned out to be a bad leader it was always possible to appoint someone new. The turmoil it caused might not be worth it though. Letting the Mother Confessor choose gave the leadership a legitimacy that an appointment by Darken Rahl did not. As much as it pained him, he could really use that legitimacy.

So he concentrated on watching the Mother Confessor rather than his own sense of helpless anger. She seemed more alive than she had in days, listening intently to each person who spoke with a patience that Darken Rahl envied. If someone were giving him the line of manure this merchant was obviously trying to feed the Mother Confessor the man would have already lost his tongue and hands.

After a short eternity she finally coaxed the merchant into admitting that his alibi was false because he'd been with the garrison commander's daughter all night. Darken Rahl waved Captain Gant back into position before he had finished drawing his sword. "Later. You can work that out later." Rahl said with more than a little amusement. He ignored the annoyance on the Mother Confessor's face when he told her to continue.

Darken Rahl went back to staring into space as it seemed like the Mother Confessor wanted to question every citizen in the town including the entire garrison. He declared the session over after the sun had set and the candles had burned down halfway. He was surprised to see her sag wearily after all the locals had left. He approached her cautiously, wary of a trick. "You don't look well. Do you want dinner or a bed first?"

"I'm fine." Kahlan straightened up with a vague smile. "It's very intense knowing that lives hang in the balance of what I'm doing."

Lord Rahl blinked and tilted his head curiously. "Don't lives hang in the balance of what you do anyway?"

"Yes but it isn't usually so personal." She stopped abruptly. "It isn't personal for you at all. You could do exactly what I did today and it would be no more personal than swatting a fly. Not because you don't care about the outcome." Kahlan's face lit up. "I use my training to look into people's hearts and it's a heavy burden because I love them. I love their hope and their tenacity in the face of hardship. I love the way they can band together and become greater than themselves. I love the way that sometimes one individual can walk to the front and lead on the strength of his heart. That bravery and goodness can flourish in all manner of places."

Darken Rahl felt goose bumps rise on his arms.

"I used to think that you simply didn't look into their hearts. But you do." Kahlan took a step towards him. "You look into their hearts and you're afraid. You see the cruelty and the violence and miss the good things that are there." She took another careful step towards him. "After I realized you weren't just blind I thought you were afraid of the hope. I thought that you saw the strength of people and were afraid it was going to be used against you. And you are. But it isn't the goodness in people that makes you so afraid. You look into their hearts and see the violence and cruelty and miss the beauty and joy. We didn't catch you at Tamarang because you expect people to be duplicitous and self serving. That's why you used gars in Westland to trick people into doing what you wanted. You're not afraid of people's hope, you're afraid of their fear."

Darken's mouth was desert dry as he tried to speak.

"You must have thought I was so naive." She sobered. "After my mother died my father came and took my sister and I. He used us and our powers to give him what he wanted. It took a long time with the Sisters of Light before I could see the good in people despite the bad. They taught me how to see the good even in those who had committed heinous crimes. To believe that everyone is capable of starting over and becoming a new person." Kahlan peered owlishly at him. "But there were no Sisters of Light for you and the thing I hate most about you is how easily I could have ended up like you." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Forgive me. I'm exhausted and need to sleep on all that testimony."

Darken Rahl moved out of her way. "Pleasant dreams, Kahlan."

Kahlan's smile looked old and tired. "I doubt it."

***

Kahlan sat in the locked room she'd been given to study the ledgers. After three nearly straight days of study she was certain that she was being allowed to look at the real records. She had barely seen Lord Rahl since the night she had obeyed her instincts and told him the revelation she'd had about him- had been having about him while she'd been standing there. He had seemed more afraid during that conversation than when she had first called on the Con Dar and turned his soldiers and Mord Sith against him.

As disconcerting as that realization had been the lack of violence scared her more. She had expected him to lash out. Maybe she had even been hoping he would lash out. Making a martyr of herself seemed the most useful thing she could do for the Resistance right now. Lashing out would have allowed her to hate him just as fervently as she used to, proving him unworthy of her sympathy. Instead he had withdrawn and let her pick out the next magistrate with little interference beyond insisting on asking questions any time he suspected she was secretly communicating with the Resistance.

Kahlan looked down at the ledger in her hands. It was real. This was real. Darken Rahl expected people to connive and scheme however honest they were. He didn't find that sentiment paradoxical at all and now she understood why. That understanding was terrifying but useful. To read people she had to be willing to see when they were liars and sadists in order to see when they weren't. Darken Rahl was alarmingly honest in his deceptions so Kahlan would have to be too.

She would need to deceive him in order to escape. A shudder passed through her as she thought about what she would have to do in order to make that happen. She would have to be willing to go along with his plans without losing herself. It was the only way he would give her enough freedom to make an escape. He was too paranoid to let her just give lipservice to serving him or to manipulate into letting her go. She would have to demand things. He wouldn't trust anyone without ulterior motives.

It had been a long time but she could still easily conjure Richard's face in her mind. He needed her. For whatever reason the Creator had chosen him and chosen her they needed each other. The prophecy said she would betray him. Or maybe the one traveling with him would. She was in white too. Kahlan pictured Richard and Alana traveling together. It hurt her heart but maybe they were accomplishing some good together. She looked down at the ledger in her hands.

Yet things weren't as they had seemed. Before it had been so simple. The Seeker would come to liberate the Midlands from Darken Rahl's oppression and as a Confessor it was her duty to serve the Seeker. Kahlan had not been completely honest with Darken Rahl. It had been the tales of the Seekers as much as the Sisters of Light that had restored her hope in people. She had looked forward to his coming as an end to the pain and misery she saw driving people to harm one another. That she had been the Confessor to travel with him for all those months was an honor she had often daydreamed about as a girl.

To stand at the side of the Seeker as he used the Sword of Truth to cut through the lies that infected the land had seemed a fine way to live. As a Confessor she had resigned herself to never really being able to love someone. The comfort of her sisters and her mission were what she had thought she would have to be content with. As Darken Rahl's men had hunted her and her sisters closer and closer to extinction it had seemed like she might not have to live that way for very long.

Then Kahlan had met Richard. He was completely unlike any other man she had ever known. Unlike the men of the Midlands he saw her as a sexual being and a person and felt no fear. Unlike the men of D'Hara he had not seen her as quarry. Kahlan smiled as she thought of the way he had leapt into battle to protect her, a complete stranger. There had been days she had thought her heart would burst from her chest with the power of the love she had felt for him. There were days when she thought she might cry and never stop weeping when she thought of what acting on their feelings would do to him.

But it was time to bid farewell to that. It was time to stop pretending she and Richard had any sort of future together. She would do whatever she could to help him but in her heart she bid Richard goodbye.

***

Richard sat bolt upright in the woods. The sleepless smudges under his eyes stood out against his pale skin. The fire that had lit them for the past three nights was even more pronounced. Alana was terrified. "What is it?"

"Kahlan needs me." Richard stood and started putting out the fire.

Zedd's groan would have been loud enough to rattle windows if there had been any. "Boy, it's the middle of the night. You've been going as fast as you can for the last five months. I'm old. Let me rest for one night." He covertly gave his grandson a worried look. "You should rest too."

Richard finished dousing the fire and picked up his belongings. "You do what you want. Kahlan needs me and I’m going to find her."

Alana sighed and stood. "Does she need you now more than she did last night?"

Richard growled and stomped off.

***

Kahlan sat in her cell and steeled herself for what she would need to do. She had a new way of counting the days. Four days since she had developed her new plan. Four days of sitting and waiting for the perfect moment. Four days of waiting patiently and over thinking all the things that could go wrong.

The window to the door of her cell slid open and there was Darken Rahl's face. His blue eyes observing her as carefully as one might a coiled snake. she was struck by an inappropriate urge to run her fingers through his hair. "Hello, Kahlan." His rich voice floated out in the air and she knew it was time.

"Tremmon." She turned to the former soldier. "Please die."


	6. Chapter 6

Kahlan paced around the small, windowless room. Thoughts swam in and out of focus as she tried phrasing and rephrasing her arguments. Occasionally she stopped to pick up one of the books and refresh her memory of a trade route or a troop movement. She ran her fingers through her loose hair as she thought.

As awful as she felt about ordering Tremmon to die she had to admit that the monotony was easier to deal with when there wasn't a pair of worshiping eyes following her everywhere. Lord Rahl had made certain she attended the funeral and heard the wailing of Tremmon's wife and children. In return he had told them that Tremmon had died of apoplectic fit. The way he had looked it was believable despite his youth.

The Mother Confessor was ashamed to admit that murdering Tremmon didn't bother her as much as her gratitude for that lie. She would have thought it wouldn't matter to her what Tremmon's wife and children thought because they already hated her for taking him away from them. But being at the funeral and hearing Darken lie for her she realized just how much she had been dreading hearing them denounce her as a murderer.

In the middle of that thought the door swung open to reveal Darken Rahl. "I haven't seen that look on your face before."

Kahlan squared her shoulders and banished all thoughts but the task ahead of her. "I want you to build some orphanages."

"Why would I do that?" Darken Rahl sounded mildly curious. She had feared he would be angered by her presumption or worse, amused.

"Because after murdering their parents the least you owe them is a place to live." Kahlan crossed her arms over her chest.

Darken Rahl nodded. "And the reason you think I will fulfill this obligation you think I have?"

"It's the smart thing to do." Kahlan replied promptly. "Some of these children are going to hate you no matter what you do. I won't deny that. But if you give them a home and food and clothing fewer of them will grow up hating you quite so bitterly."

"That's not a very strong recommendation." Darken Rahl looked intent. "I assume you have more."

"It looks good." Kahlan didn't back down. "Having orphanages would mean that children wouldn't need to go begging on the streets. Taking care of orphans shows that you want to take care of your people. The child beggars constantly remind people of the negative consequences of your oppression."

"Shouldn't you be wanting to keep me from looking good?" Kahlan felt like Darken's eyes were pinning her down. "Many of your compatriots would see it as a betrayal."

"There are some among the Resistance who would harm deliberately innocents in order to bring you down." Kahlan pressed her lips together, thinking of Carver Dunn. "I am not one of them, I have never been one of them and I do not intend to start thinking that way now. We are fighting to make the world better for everyone and that can't be done by hurting innocent people." She smiled tightly. "Otherwise we're no better than you."

"I see." Now amusement did show in the corners of his mouth. "Are there any other suggestions you would like to put forth?"

"There should be houses of healing in every province." Kahlan said firmly.

"So I can keep track of who comes there to be healed of sword injuries?" Darken Rahl looked thoughtful.

"I was going to say because it's the right thing to do. If your soldiers insist on storming into homes and attacking civilians then you ought to heal them and help them put their lives back together." Kahlan argued.

"I should spend money on people who support my enemies?"

"If you don't try to succor your enemies then they will remain enemies. By helping them you might convince them to your side." Kahlan waved her hand at the desk overflowing with ledgers and scrolls. "You convince more people by behaving like someone worthy of being followed than you do by sticking swords into them."

"I'm Lord Rahl. People shouldn't need to be convinced to follow me." Darken's eyes betrayed an anger that the rest of him did not. The rest of him was calm, relaxed and in control of the situation. His eyes held an old frustration that had festered into rage and recrimination buried under layers of denial and stubbornness.

"You know that isn't true." Kahlan was surprised by the pity she felt. She didn't try to repress it but she was careful to keep it out of her face and hands. "The fact that there is a Resistance proves that isn't true."

"Yes but if I admit it isn't true in public then I have trouble maintaining the loyalty of my soldiers." Darken Rahl spread his hands. "Lord Rahl does not need anything but his birthright in order to rule."

Kahlan knew who Darken had to be quoting and suppressed a shudder. "There are other ways of looking at things. You understand that well enough to come up with plans based around that fact. The way you tricked Hartland shows that you know something about making people see things a certain way."

Darken Rahl looked taken aback. "You're using a plan where I fed civilians to wild animals as proof that I'm not a lost cause?"

Kahlan faltered for a beat. "Everyone has the capacity for change."

"I will consider your suggestions and get back to you." Darken Rahl said magnanimously. "Would you like some materials so you can plan out where these orphanages and houses of healing should go?"

"Yes." Kahlan said, not needing to fake the barely contained excitement. "Please."

***

Kahlan understood the trap. That was the easy part. Time spent on this project was time not spent trying to escape, more enjoyable than time spent staring at blank walls and gave her the hope she might accomplish something. She was clinging to the last one. She needed hope that something was going to go well or she would go barking mad. It was getting harder and harder to stay angry at the man who offered her escape from the moment even though he was the one who forced the interminable hours on her to begin with.

Feeling pity for him was another trap but one she doubted he set up on purpose. He wanted her agreement, not her pity. Kahlan was increasingly certain that Darken wanted to convince her he was right because he doubted it. Unfortunately she knew that what she was turning her mind from was the small ways that Darken was beginning to remind her of Richard. They had the same stubbornness. Even when the world was telling them no they kept at whatever their goal was until it happened. There were similarities in the jawline and-

Kahlan tilted her head back against a blank wall and waited for Darken Rahl to come take her away from her thoughts. It would be his choice of entertainment but it would be better than thinking alone. She was being allowed out of her room more and more often as she put more effort into trying to come up with things to please Lord Rahl. The Mother Confessor recognized this trap too but it was more difficult to avoid. She was walking a tightrope between needing to please Darken Rahl and fool him into thinking she wanted him to be happy and needing to keep her emotions separate so that when the time came she would not hesitate to disappoint Lord Rahl. Hesitation could prove fatal no matter how much Darken wanted her alive and on his side. It was the line between fooling him and fooling herself that was giving Kahlan difficulty. The best way to fool another person was to believe the lie.

In the fifteen days since she had developed her plan she had spent a couple hours each day telling herself who she was and what she was trying to do. Kahlan was the Mother Confessor of the Midlands and she would reach her goals no matter how much it hurt. It couldn't hurt less than those months by Richard's side knowing she loved him and he loved her with a love that could only consume him. She was doing this for Richard. For whatever perverse plan the Creator had in mind Richard needed her. She could fulfill that role but then they needed to part ways. Kahlan would not be the tool of Richard's destruction.

She could barely remember his face.

The window in Kahlan's door opened and there were Darken Rahl's cool, blue eyes watching her. "I have a surprise for you."

Their conversations seemed to start with that more often than they started with a greeting. She supposed that could just be an effect of the way their conversations used to start. Yelling didn't really lend itself to polite small talk. Kahlan noticed that he'd stopped asking her about her day. Maybe that was a kindness too. "Is this a surprise I'll like?"

"I think so but there's only one way to be certain." Another standard response.

Kahlan smiled involuntarily. "You have my parole." The Mother Confessor gestured graciously. After Darken Rahl had unlocked the door and Kahlan had stepped out she permitted him to take her arm. It was still a novel thing for her even after months in Lord Rahl's care. Men were terrified to be near her let alone touch her. Except for Richard Cypher and Darken Rahl. She reminded herself sternly that Zedd only minded her presence because he was afraid of what she might do to Richard and there had been other men who knew her well enough to know she wouldn't hurt innocent people if she could help it but none of them had the slightest interest in making a life with her. She was beginning to wonder if they were wrong about her.

Together Lord Rahl and the Mother Confessor made their way into a part of the Palace she had never seen before. Servants scurried past and Kahlan knew that with just one touch she could force one to help her fight off Lord Rahl. But then she would have to fight her way out of the People's Palace and the image that sprang to mind was Tremmon's funeral. Another family grieving because she was impatient. She met the gaze of a passing servant and saw a woman who kept her head down because she was afraid of the consequences of speaking.

The door that opened led into a room with a bath. Darken Rahl smiled at her, looking very pleased with himself. "I thought it had been a long time since you were able to thoroughly clean yourself and relax."

Kahlan tamped down a sense of gratitude. "Are you going to watch?"

"No. Knock on the door when you're done. I'm afraid without the Rada'Han I don't trust you to resist temptation so you'll need to bathe alone. The tub is very old and has some useful spells on it to keep the water warm so you should be fine." Lord Rahl ushered her into the room.

"Thank you." Kahlan smiled sweetly. "I'll savor it thoroughly." When he was gone she looked into the foggy depths of a mirror that hung on the wall. She could break the mirror and use a large shard as a knife, wait a while before knocking on the door, slice open the throat of one guard, touch another and try to escape. Then she would be hunted down like a hare. Kahlan growled in frustration and flipped the mirror so it faced the wall.

***

Jennsen stirred dinner, waiting for the smell that would let her know the stew was done simmering. Her small hut was well hidden but she didn't want the smoke to rise longer than necessary. Ever since the Fire Fever she had taken careful precautions to hide herself as much as possible. She planned to leave the dismal single room house in a couple of days so she was startled to hear someone pound on her door like they meant to break it down. "Coming!"

Zedd's embrace was nearly painful. "Thank the Creator it's you."

Jennsen's forehead wrinkled in worry. "Grandfather? Richard!" The new Confessor dragged Richard in.

"The foolish boy tried to take on a D'Haran patrol by himself." Zedd sighed. "I need to rest so I can heal him. He'll be fine until then." He made what Jennsen supposed was meant to be a reassuring smile.

"Hello, I'm Alana." The new Confessor greeted Jennsen once Richard was laid out on Jennsen's bed roll.

"I'm Jennsen." The small red head nodded back.

"The Seeker's sister." Alana gave Richard a look that was half irritation and half admiration. "He talks about you in his sleep sometimes."

"Does he blame me?" This question had weighed heavily on Jennsen's mind ever since Kahlan's kidnapping.

"I don't think so. He doesn't talk much." Alana said apologetically.

Zedd growled. "It was no fault of yours. Rahl's soldiers found her, that's all."

"But he would have been with her if I hadn't run off with the Boxes." Jennsen was all but wringing her hands. She had seen them arguing before the messenger arrived and watched as her brother stomped off.

"They were arguing about- something else." Alana made shifty eyes at Zedd.

"The Seeker needs to be Confessed to use the power of Orden without being consumed." Zedd ignored Alana. "Richard asked to be Confessed and Kahlan refused. They were arguing about it when the Seeker was called to Direholt. It had nothing to do with you."

Jennsen pursed her lips and looked at Alana. "Could you-"

"No." Alana took the stew off of the fire.

"We were going to try that when we got word from Shota that it wouldn't work. It would destroy the Seeker and Lord Rahl would continue to crush the Midlands." Zedd grumbled. "I don't trust the messenger but it was too important to ignore."

Jennsen went over and helped Alana serve dinner. She had been planning to eat the stew over the next couple of days but things had changed. "I'm coming with you."

Her grandfather gave her a long look. "You should stay here with two of the Boxes."

Jennsen shook her head. "I'm not really safe here and maybe I can help with my brother." The echo of Darken Rahl's lies sent a shiver down her spine.

"We're going to go see the woman who sent the message." Alana moved sharply with repressed anger. "If she doesn't want me helping then there needs to be something else we can do."

Zedd accepted his stew and ate hungrily. "You might be useful. She's a powerful witch and probably won't see you coming."

Jennsen bowed her head. "Whatever I can do to help." Of course her grandfather only wanted her along when she was useful and would rather have her off in some woods where she wouldn't get hurt. But it wasn't like anywhere was safe as long as Lord Rahl was around.

***

Kahlan Amnell tried to remember the first time she had heard of the Seeker. It seemed like she had always known who he was and that he was coming. She had built up an image in her mind of a man who had spent his whole life training to use weapons and to discern right from wrong, lies from truth and to protect the weak. She and some of the other children the Sisters of Light cared for would sometimes play that one of them was the Seeker. She usually played the part of the Confessor who helped him slay the evil Lord Rahl. Sometimes she wondered how much that game influenced her reaction to Richard.

At first she had dismissed him as a simple woods guide. Now looking at the ledgers again she began to wonder if that was the right reaction. He knew right from wrong with a sureness that surprised her sometimes. Richard knew how to wield the sword. He was named by a wizard. He could read the ancient magical language that Darken Rahl called Old D'Haran. But it had been his adopted brother who had been a leader of men. Richard ran from place to place righting wrongs and solving ancient puzzles. He wasn't trained to be a leader and while so far it had all worked out for the best there was the chance that one day Richard was going to pick a battle he couldn't win and forget to pick the battleground.

Richard's sense of right and wrong was so strong and he followed it without question. Kahlan's hand balled as she remembered his order to beat Denna to death. It was admirable, charismatic and so many other things but it wasn't leadership. Darken Rahl was right in that his armies could not simply be withdrawn and that if he died another Lord Rahl would rise after him. That was something her childhood games had not prepared her for.

If it weren't for the prophecy she would be questioning her plan.

***

Darken Rahl considered the state of his plan. The Mother Confessor was wearing his colors without prompting, coming up with plans that helped his agenda as well as hers and she had killed Tremmon. It was the last that convinced him more than anything else. It was completely opposite everything she had claimed to be. But a part of him still whispered that she was faking in order to set him up. She wasn't trustworthy and not just because of her association with the Seeker. She had been taught things that were extraordinarily different from what he had been taught. If he were in her place he would be trying to trick himself.

Lord Rahl turned from admiring one of his vines to surreptitiously admiring Lady Kahlan. She was barefoot with her toes in the mud. The sunlight shone off her lustrous brown hair and glinted off the Rada'Han at her throat. Her eyes were closed and her head tilted back so that the sun's radiance lit her. Kahlan was beautiful and she was here with him. He almost said something just to reassure himself that it was real. She was there with him and not trying to claw his eyes out or cursing him. She had to be up to something.

"What do you plan to do with me if you convince me to your side?" Kahlan spoke, eyes still closed.

Darken wasn't sure whether to bless or curse the training Kahlan had received. On the one hand it made some of his arguments more persuasive it made it too easy for her to guess what he was thinking. "You're intelligent and well trained and I'd like your insight into situations."

Kahlan snorted. "What about Richard?"

Darken Rahl's guts clenched. "What about him?"

"If you're going to say I'm intelligent, then give me credit for intelligence." Kahlan's clear blue gaze pierced Darken. "Richard is prophesied to kill you. You want to avert that prophecy by killing him. I doubt you expect me to be comfortable with this. I want to know how uncomfortable I can be and you'll still consider me to be on your side."

"I would be happy if you would stand aside while I kill him." Lord Rahl stood slowly.

"Would you? Really?" Kahlan's gaze sharpened. "Or would you want me to kill him to prove my loyalty?"

Darken opened his mouth to deny that but paused. "You have a point." The truth struggled to stay behind his teeth.

"And even then you would suspect that I would come to regret killing him or I faked it somehow. You would suspect that I was waiting until you turned your back to avenge him." Kahlan's gentle tone rubbed at raw spots Darken hadn't known his mind contained.

"Yes." Lord Rahl sighed heavily and turned to look at his garden. Orderly rows of colored flower and neatly trimmed bushes that didn't dare grow out of their ascribed patterns filled his sight from where he squatted to the wall. "That is true."

"I don't think there is anything I can do that would make you stop doubting." Kahlan's voice sank into him like a knife. "I've watched you with men who've proven themselves many times over and still you keep them at arm's length. Except for that one in the assassination plot."

Darken Rahl turned to Kahlan. "Assassination plot?"

"Don't worry. He changed his mind and brought Richard to you to try to keep your favor." Kahlan's droll tone made Darken want to hit her but he stayed where he was.

"Ah, him." Darken remembered him. "He was a grave loss to D'Hara."

Kahlan gave him a dark look. "I do credit you with some intelligence. At least enough to see why I would consider this a problem since I wish to stay alive."

"Yes. I suppose you have a solution." Darken looked at her expectantly.

"Not really." Kahlan closed her eyes and leaned back to enjoy the sun again. "I thought it was worth mentioning."

***

Darken Rahl woke up in the middle of the night from a particularly vivid dream. He had just brought the Mother Confessor back from solving a dispute near the border. It was a minor one in his eyes but the locals had been up in arms. A group of soldiers had killed one farmer's sheep. The garrison commander had tried to cover it up but one of the villagers had left and had begun spreading the tale around as an example of D'Haran cruelty. He had thought Kahlan might enjoy a chance to pass judgment on D'Harans for hurting Midlanders.

He had been correct but the expression on her face while she listened to the farmer had been giving him nightmares. Lord Rahl wanted to know why but every time he felt like the dream was getting close to telling him he woke up. He could never remember the dreams on waking, only that they were intense.

Darken Rahl sighed and put on his red and gold robes. As he made his way to the garden he let his mind drift and simply looked for things that were wrong. He had always had a gift for ferreting out wrongness and its causes. This gift had served Lord Rahl well for years, telling him when to strike and when to hold back.

Now he dropped onto a bench and realized that he had two conflicting goals. He wanted the Mother Confessor at his side for a plethora of reasons but he wanted it to be her and not really at his side so much as subordinate to him. Her questions had settled into his mind over the last two weeks; infecting him, ruining his peace of mind. Darken Rahl understood what she had left out as well as what she had said aloud.

The only way he could trust her was if he destroyed her completely. The only way he could have her insights work to his advantage was if he left her mind intact. The Mother Confessor was making him choose whether he wanted to gain an ally or destroy an enemy. No, not making him choose. No one could force Lord Rahl to choose. Kahlan had merely pointed out that there was a choice to be made.

A dream fragment came to him, clawing its way from the back of his mind. His mother's face with a dead, defeated look floated across his mind's eye; a memory as much as a dream.

Darken Rahl stood and quickly made his way to where he kept the Mother Confessor. He rapped lightly on her door until she awoke. Irritation and fear warred on her face until sleep left her enough for her to master her expression. He preferred those to the defeated look he had seen during the last dispute. He would rather see rage and hatred there than defeat. "I'm not my father," he hadn't meant to start that so baldly but he couldn't reclaim the words.

Kahlan blinked slowly. "It's nowhere near dawn and you come down to tell me something I already know. Is your guilty conscience finally catching up with you?"

"No." Darken Rahl said staunchly. "May I come in?"

"It's your room. I'm certain you can do whatever you like in it. Haven't you been doing whatever you like with me for the past six months?" Kahlan sounded uncertain rather than belligerent.

"I'm asking permission." Lord Rahl gritted his teeth.

Kahlan stared at him so long he thought she was going to try to outwait him, force him to decide to either go away or enter without permission. Then she nodded slowly. "Alright, you can come in as long as you behave like a gentleman."

Lord Rahl kept the growl in his head. "Thank you." He entered the room. "There are guards posted at the end of the hall."

"What if they hear you in here?" Lady Kahlan sounded merely curious but Lord Rahl knew better.

"Have you ever heard them?"

Kahlan frowned. "No."

Darken gave her a patient look.

"What part in your great plan involves me sitting here watching you watch me?" Kahlan rubbed her eyes. "You're not your father. I think people may have noticed that."

"I would rather have you as an ally than crush you completely."

"So you say and so you might believe." Kahlan acknowledged. "But from what I've seen you might not be able to help yourself."

"People keep dying and disappearing." Lord Rahl sat on the foot of her bed.

Kahlan opened her mouth with a frown and then stopped. Her confusion became more apparent. "What do you mean?"

"You killed Giller, Demmin Nass vanished," he ignored her wince. He was not in a mood to push her for details surrounding that. He looked at her more closely as his eyes adjusted to the dim, silvery light. There was a sadness in Kahlan's eyes. "I know it's war and it's foolish to get attached to people but- You're the only person I can talk to who won't talk to anyone else." Pure, unabashed emotional blackmail that was painfully true.

"Thank you," Kahlan said sarcastically. "What does that have to do with your father?"

"I don't remember my mother, not really." Darken frowned. "Nor do I know how she died. I've heard stories of all kinds. That she killed herself, that my father killed her, that she had an honest accident, that she fell sick and so many variations on each. But I can't tell which one is true or if it even matters how she died." His voice grew softer as he continued.

"Of course it matters." Kahlan said. "She should have been a part of your life, she wasn't and you don't know the cause. With everything I've heard about your father it sounds like just one more thing that meant you could never really tell what the adults around you were doing and why they were doing it."

Lord Rahl shrugged uncomfortably. "It was a long time ago. What I'm saying is I don't want to do that to you."

Kahlan reached out and stroked the side of his face.

Darken's eyes widened in startlement. The last person to spontaneously touch him had been Jennsen when she thought he was the good brother. Before she betrayed him. Lord Rahl started to pull away but Kahlan wound her fingers in his hair and pulled him into a kiss.


	7. Chapter 7

Kahlan pulled her dark red sleeves down to cover the reddish purple bruises striping her arm. The handprint was well defined against her pale skin. Compared to how she had been expecting him to react when she told him to stop it was getting off easy. She had known that she couldn't say yes the first time without arousing Darken Rahl's suspicion that she was doing it to manipulate him. At the same time he had been kissing just a bit too hard, touching her just a bit too harshly like he was daring her to tell him no. The Mother Confessor tried to calculate how much more time she could afford to let pass before she submitted and how much time it would take to convince Lord Rahl that her submission was real.

Kahlan looked up at her guard from the book she had been staring at. The tall, dark haired Mord Sith's soul searching eyes were trained on the wall behind Kahlan. It was a sign of trust that Darken Rahl allowed her in this room without her Rada'Han or his company. The quad of Mord Sith guards were there because Darken Rahl wasn't stupid enough to trust the Dragon Corps to keep the Mother Confessor from making another escape attempt or to get her back under control afterward. From what Kahlan had deduced he did not expect the Mord Sith to keep her from trying to escape but he did expect them to prevent her from leaving Palace grounds.

Eventually Kahlan would have to try them to see if she could get past the Mord Sith. Except for the pain and agony she would likely suffer Kahlan had nothing to lose. If she never made the attempt Darken Rahl would grow stricter in other things to insure she wasn't looking for another way out and would be less likely to listen to her because he would be looking for the traps she was setting. If she made the attempt and succeeded then she would be free to do what she needed to do.

This was why she was suspicious of Lord Rahl’s decision to let her set up a trial orphanage. Kahlan was in charge of figuring out where to put it, who to put in charge, how to finance it, how large it should be, and how it would be supplied. Lord Rahl was making her a partner on this project. Not an equal partner of course but she had a say in what happened. The Mother Confessor was certain that Lord Rahl would ultimately have veto power over her choices but she also didn't doubt that he saw this as giving her a privilege. In some ways Kahlan supposed it was.

Instead of monotony she had work that meant something to her. Not everyone could say that. It didn't require the use of her powers. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be getting the message that her powers weren't needed to achieve her goals or that he wouldn't need her to use her powers for him. Kahlan dropped her eyes to the floor as she followed that train of thought. If his point were the second one then she would believe him. Even if she ever made him believe he'd corrupted her fully to his side he still wouldn't trust her with her power.

***

Introspection had never been one of Kahlan's favorite activities. She preferred to find a problem she could solve and get to work solving it. Sitting around and thinking up solutions was part of being a Confessor but a long way from her favorite part. Even when she did spend time thinking things through it was usually for strangers not herself. Trying to discern the mindset of an angry wife or a failed businessman was different from looking into her own mind and trying to see what Darken Rahl could use to put her under his thumb.

Much as it had rattled her to realize the eerie similarities between herself and Darken it was worse to look inside herself and see her own potential for destruction even with all the help she had received over the years. Kahlan had always known that her compassion paled in comparison to Dennee's yet it was only when she applied the skills she had learned from years of studying people that she truly appreciated what a callous creature she had become. In her mind she had differentiated herself from her sister by defining herself as the strong one and her sister as the kind one.

As the elder sister it had been her job to protect Dennee and she had widened that mindset to include all the people of the Midlands. It wasn't that Kahlan used to see Dennee as weak it was just that her little sister wasn't as strong as she was. Kahlan had been the one to take care of Dennee after their mother had died and before they had gone to the Sisters of Light. On one level, the level Kahlan did her best to listen to even in the dead of night when her doubts became deafening, she knew that she had been only five years old and no one in their right mind would expect a five year old to be a good protector for anyone. It had taken the Sisters of Light months to get her to listen when they said that what had happened to her and Dennee was not her fault. It had nothing to do with what might have happened if Kahlan had been a little smarter, a little faster, a little stronger, had said no a little louder, had asked one of the adults in one of the villages her father invaded for help or had found an opportunity to run. Kahlan's father would never have listened to her or her protests and it had nothing to do with Kahlan or Dennee. It hadn't been until Kahlan had begun to travel the Midlands as a Confessor that she began to believe what the Sisters told her.

It hadn't been until Kahlan became a Confessor that she began to see why she needed to use her power. During her stay with the Sisters she had sometimes yelled at them that she never wanted to use her powers again. Slowly they had shown her that it was wrong to allow criminals to run free when she could stop them. A man who committed murder needed to be brought to justice and she could do that. It was up to her to keep other children from facing the horrors she had faced and to make those horrors stop where she could. She had the power and so she had the burden of improving the world with it. Without her and her sister Confessors the Midlands would be plagued by disharmony.

For the first time Kahlan wondered if the Sisters' manipulation had really been good. It had given her the confidence to take the place she had inherited in the Midlands' hierarchy. They had taught her that not everyone was as evil as her father, that she could make a positive difference in the lives of others, that some things were right and some were wrong, that not everyone who thought differently from her was wrong, that there was a difference between malice and ignorance even if the effects were often similar and how to read people's intentions. Dennee had been younger and so her memories of their father were dimmer and her time spent with the Sisters had had more of an effect.

The Mord Sith slapped her Agiel against the back of Kahlan's neck again. The jolt of pain made her flop helplessly. By the time the Mord Sith (Rikka?) dumped Kahlan across the bed in her room the Mother Confessor was too tired to move. She couldn't even tilt her head to keep her drool from getting on the blankets.

"We had to cut Hally's throat!" the Mord Sith shouted at someone out of Kahlan's line of sight. The woman growled at Kahlan and stalked out.

Kahlan lay on the bed and drooled while she contemplated the bond that held the Mord Sith together. The Sisters of the Agiel were forged by terror and pain, taken from their families at a young age and turned into weapons. She thought about what she would have done if the Sisters of Light had ordered her to kill her father. Kahlan had no question that she would have done it. The only thing she wondered was if she would have enjoyed it. Did the Mord Sith enjoy killing the last vestiges of the weak children who weren't fast enough, strong enough or smart enough? If Kahlan's sister Confessors had all been fueled by the same rage that Kahlan had known would they have survived better?

After Mother Confessor Serena had been forced to kill her own son no one accused her of being soft. When she sent out word to hide the Confessors went underground and when she ordered them to stand and fight they had stood and fought and died. Kahlan had no difficulty understanding that decision. Serena had fought so long and hard that she saw the enemy everywhere, even in places where there were friends. Mother Confessor Kahlan Amnell was forced to consider whether she might have done the reverse. When she had been young and vulnerable she had felt surrounded by enemies maybe she had mistaken the Sisters for friends because they were less dangerous.

In the wake of Agiel induced agony Kahlan thought about what Darken Rahl wanted from her; what she could make with her own mind and ingenuity and most likely a Confessor child he could bend to his will. Then there was what the Confessors would want from her; leadership, good judgment and sooner or later a child to carry on their work. And they would want her to keep on turning people into her loving slaves. Zedd, Richard, the Resistance and in a way the whole of the Midlands expected her to continue Confessing people. Particularly Zedd. The weight of the lives of so many people was on her shoulders because she was lucky by birth, fortunate to have survived the deaths of almost everyone else like her and she had been in the right place at the right time to become the Seeker's traveling companion.

Kahlan remembered the expression on Dennee's delicate features after the D'Haran arrow had struck her in the back. Her sister had known then that she was with child, a child that could help to fill out their diminished ranks. Was it bravery or selfishness that had driven Dennee on that ride? Dennee had risked much by riding with Kahlan. She could have been risking the future of all the Confessors, a future they had both felt was of vital importance. If Kahlan had known that Dennee was pregnant she would have insisted on protecting her by making sure Dennee stayed somewhere safe. Even Serena's order to rally and fight back wouldn't have pulled Dennee back into the fray. Kahlan believed Dennee truly meant the pregnancy to make a new Confessor who could be trained to replace the old but her timing had been far from convenient.

Could Dennee's willingness to risk her unborn child be the product of guilt? It was prophesied that the Seeker would be named and use the power of Orden to destroy Darken Rahl. Dennee had to have conceived Kahlan's nephew no more than three months before the Amnell sisters had been sent to Westland. Getting there had taken them more than a month. If Kahlan hadn't been too worn out she would have scowled. Her sister had chosen to make life instead of further involving herself in war. She had chosen to do so with a D'Haran sent to kill her. Maybe she hadn't thought through what it might mean to fall pregnant before Lord Rahl was destroyed. Maybe Dennee hadn't been thinking at all and had made up an explanation to placate Serena who had been distracted by the simple joy of finding another Confessor alive. Maybe Dennee had thought it would at least take her out of the fighting and then thought that it would keep her alive if she were captured by D'Harans who would otherwise shoot her on sight. Dennee had encouraged Kahlan to ride on to Westland and the babe had saved her life in that D'Haran prison. Maybe she had thought all that and then rationalized it away as doing the best thing for their dying order. Dennee hadn't really wanted to drown her son even though she knew all male children born to Confessors turned into bloodthirsty monsters. Rather than kill the child she had stepped out of the war completely, gone off to a magical hiding place where she would be safe.

Tears welled up in Kahlan's eyes. That was why her little sister wasn't going to come rescue her. Any other Confessor would argue for luring Darken Rahl out of the People's Palace to a place where he would be vulnerable. Kahlan was being seen all over the countryside so attacking Darken Rahl's strongest point when she might not even be there was bad planning. Kahlan was horrified by herself but too tired and in too much pain to stop. She wanted to go somewhere else. A place far, far away from Mord Sith and murky politics slowly miring her in the understanding that her upbringing had left her unprepared to deal with what it would take to fix what was wrong with the Midlands and D'Hara.

Maybe this was the Creator's punishment for leaving Dennee for dead.

***

Dark bruises from where a Mord Sith had carelessly walked Kahlan into a wall had faded from black to dark blue on her cheek and forearm. She barely realized she was keeping her hair over her face when Darken Rahl came to check on her for the first time since she had tried to take on the Mord Sith. During that time she had been confined to her room and consigned to the monotony that had plagued her first days while she itched to continue her work on the orphanage. "Can I ask you a question?" she asked before Darken could say a word.

"That depends on the question." Kahlan was rocked by the strength of the emotions that flooded through her on hearing his voice again after five days of silence except for whatever noise she made.

"Can you tell me about a happy memory from when you were a child?" Kahlan asked softly.

"A happy memory?" Confusion showed on Darken's face and from what she could see of the set of his shoulders. "Yes, let me think a moment." A distant look filled his eyes and the silence stretched out before a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. "I was seven years old and Demmin and I were playing beside this little stream. My father was away leading one of his armies or some such thing with General Nass so we weren't going to get in much trouble for not attending to my tutor. I found a sapling and tried to climb it but it broke under me even though I was small. Not just because I was a child I was always small for my age."

Kahlan peered at him to see if he was trying to garner sympathy but that distant look was still there. She looked objectively at his body in her memory, trying to compare his growth with other men she had known. Traveling from village to village meant that sometimes she would come back to a place after four or five years and see how people had changed. Comparatively while Darken Rahl wasn't a short man he also wasn't tall. He was broadly muscled in a way that suggested he did one or two hours of sword work every day and more on some days.

Unbidden her mind jumped to compare him to his brother. Darken's muscles were bulkier but Richard's were better defined.

Shaking off those thoughts Kahlan forced herself back to the reason she was even thinking about what Lord Darken Rahl of D'Hara might look like under those trailing robes. Darken probably wasn't exaggerating when he said he was small for his age especially in comparison with Demmin Nass.

"-then he said that he could be a Calthrop and I could be a special monster hunter who didn't need the Sword of Truth because I had the Stick of Life." Darken had warmed to the tale. "He let me beat him so I let him live as my servant. Demmin pretended to be my Calthrop who I gave wizard powers so he could defeat my enemies." Darken's smile faded into a grimace.

"Don't worry; I'm not surprised your childhood revolved around killing and enslaving." Kahlan said archly, hiding the pity she felt. Not for the warlord of D'Hara of course but for a little boy who needed to compete with a brother that wouldn't be born for years.

"Not that." Darken said dismissively. "When my father got home we found out that one of his servants had been ordered to watch us. He was angry that I didn't kill the Calthrop."

"Oh." Kahlan thought about that for a moment. Puzzle pieces slid into place. She couldn't imagine growing up knowing that anyone around her could be directly in the employ of someone unfriendly. "What happened to Demmin?"

"His father sent him home for a few months to keep him out of my father's way." Darken's lips twisted wryly. "My father didn't know that was the worst part of the punishment. But that one afternoon was enough for a long time."

Kahlan met his eyes. "There's something else."

"Yes. Demmin and I stopped playing together a while after that." Darken said uneasily. "I didn't like finding out that his father had told him to play with me. He later convinced me he was loyal to me anyway."

"Why would his father do that? I'd think playing with Panis Rahl's son would be like playing with fire." Kahlan demurely folded her hands in her lap.

"I wasn't given the privileges of Princess Violet if that's what you're implying." Anger and jealousy fought for dominance in his voice. "He was determined that Demmin would be the next General Nass." His smile held an edge of nastiness when he noticed Kahlan's surprise. "I thought your side knew how thoroughly I trusted Demmin."

"We did. I just- I never really pictured him as a boy. Wasn't he older than you? I met him in Kalabra and he looked... older." Kahlan tried not to gawp like a fish.

"By a little more than seven years."

"Your father never hired a companion for you?" The Sisters had encouraged the children to play but they had never tried to tell one child to play with another unless one was clearly feeling left out. What children learned in play was what they took with them to adulthood. Kahlan's mind boggled trying to think of what a child would learn from knowing that his only playmate was there because someone wanted something. A playmate who had always been bigger and stronger and who had a father willing to protect him.

"No. He thought that the future Lord Rahl shouldn't need to have anything as soft as a companion to play with. It would be too much like having a friend and real leaders didn't have those either." Darken sneered. "Demmin's father explained it to my father by saying that he was letting me break Demmin in. That if Demmin learned then how to follow my instructions it would save time when I had my own troops to command."

"And how did that-"

"For my thirteenth birthday my father sent me with one of the rearguard units to learn what being Lord Rahl was all about."

Kahlan flinched. A boy surrounded by armed men who knew just how little power he had. From what she had learned from deserters and survivors she doubted they had made any allowances in speed or ability for a boy. From what she had heard from Darken she doubted Panis Rahl would have listened to any complaint his son dared to make. Panis Rahl's men had likely known that. Every ounce of training and twitch of instinct told her Darken wasn't lying. She wished she could believe he was. It would be easier to believe he was making up stories to manipulate her than to think of a thirteen year old boy on maneuvers while his father bedded captive women, knowing that one of them would eventually birth a son that would destroy the first one.

"Yes. That reaction sums it up fairly well. I learned from that experience and each one that followed. I learned what it took to rule the people of D'Hara. It takes more than brutal violence and bloodshed. It takes the ability to know what people want and how to show them that giving you what you want will help them get what they want. You cannot lead a people if you don't know them. My father didn't know anybody because he didn't know how. He thought that made him a good leader. The truth is without the Rahl bond he would have been killed before he ruled a month." Kahlan noted that Darken was still telling the truth from his perspective but she was less certain of this part's accuracy. "Except for a few people at the top that I had to replace no one mourned my father's passing."

"I'm sure that's true." Kahlan was also sure that Darken was convinced his scars were calluses.

***

Jennsen watched Richard and bit her lip as he paced again. His injuries were mostly healed but his insistence on walking around before he and their grandfather were fully recovered meant the wounds were more difficult. From the corner of her eye Jennsen saw Alana stir the fire again to remind Richard that they were not going anywhere until grandfather returned from visiting a woman named Shota.

As if summoned by Jennsen's thoughts her grandfather and a strange woman who looked about half his age appeared out of thin air. The woman looked annoyed but amused which was normal around Grandfather who looked cranky.

Richard looked up like a hunting dog catching a scent. "You said I can't use the power of Orden until I find Kahlan. Will you tell me where she is now, Shota?" Jennsen's brother was in no mood for pleasantries.

"I- We have an idea about why it might need to be Kahlan in particular." Zedd attempted to include all three of them. Alana perked up a little but Richard merely scowled at the delay. "The Book of Counted Shadows and the Seeker say that the power of love can counter the power of Orden. Perhaps then it is not simply the Confessor's touch but Richard's love for Kahlan that is needed. "

Shota held up a hand and addressed only Alana. "It stands to reason that if that is the case then if he tries to use you in Kahlan's stead the disasters my visions have shown me are the result of what you must have thought occasionally. Don't try it." Jennsen was surprised to see Alana shrink back. "I have been having more difficulty than usual placing when my visions will occur." Shota turned back to Richard. "I do not know how or when Kahlan will come back to you or even whether you go to her or she comes to you. The visions are ambiguous." She traded a meaningful look with Zedd.

"You said your visions may be changed." Richard challenged. "Have you ever seen her and known when it was?"

"In three weeks' time she will be in the Morrow woods."

***

Darken Rahl looked over Kahlan's plans for the orphanage. It must be important to her because she had put in time and made no decisions that he felt he needed to correct except for an error in the budget. "I approve."

"Thank you." He marveled at how perfect her tone was. Just the right blend so that it was neither insubordinate nor subservient. That must have taken a great deal of practice.

"You're welcome." He gave her a nod befitting an equal. "I'll let you get started on the next project. I was thinking you could draw up plans for one of the Houses of Healing you were talking about. If these work we can use them as the basis for building others."

Kahlan smiled uncertainly. "That sounds like a worthy goal."

"Do I hear an objection? They're your ideas." Darken leaned his hip against the desk the Mother Confessor was sitting at.

"How do I know the results you report are real? I have no way of knowing what you think success is or even if you'll build it." Kahlan pointed out. "I'm not going to take your word for it. I want to see it myself when the building starts, when it ends and once every two months while it's running."

"Three if it stays open." Darken haggled more because he enjoyed the experience than because he felt that she had leverage. Besides, having her marshal her mistrustful arguments was much better than listening to her spewing vitriol.

Kahlan pursed her lips and nodded. "That is acceptable."

"Good." Darken nodded decisively. "Is there anything else?" She shook her head but appeared reluctant to leave or to have him leave so he looked at her admonishingly. "If you don't say anything then I can't do anything about it."

"The Mord Sith, I have killed some of them before." Her fingers brushed her cheek. "She was Confessed and they slit her throat like it was nothing but when they're together it's like they're family. Nothing can separate them even when they aren't trying to hide hating each other."

"They view it as a mercy killing." Darken explained patiently.

"Why do you keep making more of them?" Kahlan asked curiously. "Aren't you afraid they'll turn on you?"

"My illustrious ancestor, Alric Rahl, discovered the method of their creation. He is the same Rahl who created the Rahl bond. He also designed the People's Palace and named it. Much of his work has been lost but what I have been able to piece together says that he made these things with a purpose and an eye to the future. He was one of the most powerful wizards of his time." Hatred seethed inside Darken Rahl. "If we stop how do we know something worse won't come along and destroy us all?"

"You abduct girls, torture them, and use them because you're afraid that something worse might happen." Kahlan said incredulously.

"Yes." Darken Rahl showed no shame. "As I told you, without the training they cannot wield the Agiels and without the Agiels they are useless against magic. I have no way of knowing what the threat is or when they will be needed. My great grandfather burned down most of the library and many of those books can't be found anywhere else because D'Harans have never believed in disseminating information."

Kahlan looked bewitching when she frowned like that. He'd had a taste of her and wanted more. Maybe he could woo her away from his brother. "What were your father's thoughts on Mord Sith?"

"He liked to use them to torture his enemies. He enjoyed them in bed." Darken shrugged. "I don't think he gave any thought to the future beyond his next meal or tumble."

"And your grandfather?"

"I don't know. He died when my father was very young." Darken frowned. "My grandmother outlived him by a few years. I heard my grandfather died falling off a horse but I've also heard whispers about treachery. My grandmother died shortly before I was born but my father ordered that anyone who spoke of her would have his tongue cut out and then be fed to the crows." He stood up suddenly, agitated more than he would have thought possible from such old memories. "I'll leave you to start."

***

Darken Rahl sat in his garden and tried to feel the peace he normally found there. Instead he felt haunted by Lady Kahlan's eyes. He had thought that after years of killing and torturing as necessary that he had hardened himself sufficiently. His father would be very disappointed in him but that was nothing new. Darken was learning the difference between knowing what he wanted and thinking he might be able to attain it.

A thought that had germinated since his men had brought Jennsen to him was bursting into bloom. If he were as powerful as Lord Rahl should be then he should have the power to end his loneliness. His failure to do so was a sign of a weakness he thought he had stamped out at his father's funeral. Lord Rahl shouldn't need anything he couldn't take. So claimed a man so scared of his people he began a war that couldn't be won to feed them.

"Sir?" Egremont held out a journeybook. "The troops are in position to retake Brennidon."

Darken Rahl cut the arm of the nearest passing servant and gave the order to attack Brennidon.


	8. Chapter 8

The clink of cutlery against plates filled the silence as Kahlan and Darken had their first dinner together. Kahlan reflected on her food. Meat, bread and roasted vegetables were the main course. In great halls across the Midlands most of the fare would be considered bordering on plebeian if not for the presence of meat. Meat was something peasants had only rarely and then it was usually preserved in some way. She had to wonder if Darken Rahl was making some sort of point. As a member of the aristocracy if this were the Midlands he would be entitled to more flavorful food.

As a Confessor, Kahlan had dined with kings, queens, lords and ladies. Not often since her work generally kept her moving through minor villages where Lord Rahl and his spies had been less likely to be able to track her down and kill her. But often enough that she knew when a monarch wasn't putting his or her best efforts into a meal.

"Something wrong?" Darken Rahl took a sip of wine.

The wine was something else Kahlan had questions about. While it was something more than colored urine it was still lacking a certain something that would make it a good wine. "The food is a little bland compared to what I got in my room."

"You Midlanders like everything spiced heavily." Darken Rahl shook his head. "For state affairs I give my generals a good spread but it tastes strange to me."

Kahlan gave Darken a curious look. "Strange?"

"I got used to eating what the regulars ate." He shrugged. "My father made sure his troops were well fed. It makes them better fighters and keeps desertion down."

Kahlan sighed. "Everything comes back to that."

"Well, yes." Darken Rahl looked at her searchingly. "People need to eat. Is it such a bad thing to admit that feeding people might be the most important thing a ruler does? You've seen the trade information. You know why my father wasn't assassinated sooner."

"It isn't just the food." Kahlan frowned, ordering her thoughts. She had indeed seen the shipment patterns. Wheat, barley, rye and potatoes were the produce while sheep and cattle were the livestock of D'Hara. Even those who were in Darken Rahl's favor couldn't afford to keep enough horses for a cavalry unit. Except those who had been gifted land to the west.

The Midlands had become used to fighting each other from horseback. Along the border and in some of the inner countries of the Midlands it had long been traditional for the sons of the nobles to be the cavalry. The first few battles had seen the Midlands' troops overwhelmed by screaming hordes of "barbarians" wielding crossbows and pikes.

Kahlan found the implications of this troubling. On the one hand, she did not believe providing for people in other countries was anyone's duty. If people couldn't live in one area then they should move to another. On the other hand, she had seen what happened to countries flooded by refugees. It made her wonder if there had been a point at some time where giving aid to D'Hara could have prevented bloodshed. Nothing could have been done to deter Panis Rahl from invading. Better preparations would only have caused him to lose more battles but the best preparations would have required other countries in the Midlands to send aid to the ones on the border. Could offering aid to D'Haran peasants have deprived Panis Rahl of the force he needed to invade?

Darken Rahl impatiently skewered a bite of meat on his knife. "How do you mean?"

"The first time you invaded Aydindril I was a child and still living with my father. There were refugees everywhere. I couldn't understand why our neighbors didn't send help. I was young enough that I didn't understand that D'Hara and the Midlands were so different. I thought the different D'Haran generals were like the kings and queens so I couldn't understand why the kings and queens couldn't work together like the generals." Kahlan drank some of her wine. "I didn't understand all of the squabbling and by the time I did there weren't as many people to squabble. But it wasn't food they were after. It was safety. Everyone wants to know that tomorrow they will have not just enough food to eat but that their businesses won't have burned down and their families and flocks won't be murdered and they won't be sick." Kahlan spoke faster and faster. "That they won't have to freeze to death. The Resistance has trouble recruiting because most people would rather things be exactly the same tomorrow than risk them being much worse. Not even just the same, they'd let things get worse slowly as long as they don't have to risk everything going bad all at once."

Darken Rahl nodded encouragingly.

"That doesn't make them cowards though. If things do suddenly go bad anyway then they'll fight tooth and nail to get back what they think they deserve."

"Yes. That's my point." Darken Rahl cut in. "What people think they deserve is as important as what you or I think they deserve. You accuse my troops of overhunting an area and I will agree that they often do so. My question is what do you want me to do about it? They are a group of armed men who are trained to kill and they feel that they deserve a rabbit with their rations."

"They should have an allotment and if they exceed it then their garrison commander should punish them." Kahlan said firmly.

"Garrison commanders tend to like rabbit as much as their men. The only outcome I see from that is resentment towards command and stealthier hunting practices." Darken shrugged. "There's a fine line that is difficult to keep track of. In general theft is part of the assumed cost of making war. As long as my siege engines and special shipments stay where they need to be the rules will only be enforced enough to keep things that way."

"And if one of your special shipments does get stolen?" Kahlan asked, genuinely curious in spite of herself.

"An execution for the man in charge of getting it where it needed to go and the same for the thief if he's ever caught." Darken smiled. "People in the army aren't punished for crimes; they're punished for getting caught committing crimes. This means that occasionally an indispensable person is never caught."

"But that isn't fair." Kahlan played with a bite of potato. "Shouldn't you do something about that?"

"If I knew who then I'd have to do something about it which is why I do my best not to know many things I'm aware of." He set his empty dish aside. "If things are running smoothly then why should I interfere?"

"Because you're running a bunch of thieves who are killing their way across the Midlands." Kahlan was horrified. "And when you stand by you condone their behavior."

"Somehow I'm more concerned with keeping the armed men who are trained to kill happy than a lot of civilians who may or may not work together and are more likely to swallow their resentment. I'll take back one thing I said. Mutineers are punished for their crime."

Kahlan pushed aside her plate. "But if you send the message that they aren't required to live up to a standard-"

"But they are. They aren't allowed to be sloppily drunk on duty, their uniforms must be kept tidy, their weapons must be in good condition and all of those things take time. If they hunt more game than they should in their spare time-"

"What about burning out the eyes of civilians?"

"Only if they're suspected of helping the people trying to injure my soldiers."

"Suspected?" Kahlan looked at him in disbelief.

"You expect me to do nothing while people try to destroy my nation? If the resistance wins more than just the handful my troops have accidentally killed will die." Darken spread his hands. "Dessert?"

"No thank you." Kahlan paused. "Do you hate civilians?"

"No. They're necessary. They grow food. They're like craftsmen for the crops."

"And merchants?"

"A Midlander invention. Who else would think that glorified peddlers are necessary?" He said calmly.

Kahlan agreed that merchants weren't needed in D'Hara. The remaining aristocracy besides Lord Rahl lived like the generals and neither soldiers nor peasants required anything they couldn't grow or get from a market directly from the people who made it. Similarly those with merchandise in the stalls could buy what they needed from other vendors and the farmers who came in. In D'Hara there were no merchants because there was no one to sell expensive merchandise to. Anyone who could afford to buy regularly from a merchant would be a threat to Lord Rahl's power. "Cartographers?"

"We buy maps of the Midlands from Midlanders most of the time. Within D'Hara cartographers are all part of the military." Darken's smile was not kind. "It helps with keep me informed about where they are. Besides they get food, shelter and pay."

"You've given me a lot to think about." The Mother Confessor said. "I would like to go back to my room to think it over."

Darken Rahl stood and escorted her back to her room. Kahlan let her hand linger on his longer than necessary. They shared their second kiss after she thanked him for dinner.

***

Kahlan closed her eyes and tried not to cry as she felt her magic being suppressed again. The cool metal of the Rada'Han slowly warmed against her skin. It felt a little like a wet blanket being dropped over her skin to keep her magic inside. Except that it wasn't damp and she could toss a blanket aside.

"The two families involved in the dispute are D'Haran." Kahlan detected a note of wariness winding its way through Darken Rahl's voice as he turned the key in the Rada'Han's lock. "It's threatening to disrupt a Midlander settlement though."

Kahlan gave him a dirty look. "You think because they're D'Haran I would deny them justice. That isn't true. If it would help the war effort I wouldn't get involved no matter how you threatened me. Unlike you I don't hate civilians."

Darken Rahl led the Mother Confessor to the room containing the transport spell equipment. "I do not hate civilians. I just don't think they're worth the effort you do."

Kahlan gasped at the red afterimages she always had after a transport spell. "Not that much of a difference." She blinked hard and missed what Darken did with the key.

Lord Rahl guided Lady Kahlan out into the sunlight where a carriage waited. She gathered up skirts the color of dried blood and steadied herself on Darken Rahl's arm to get into the carriage. She wasn't surprised when he didn't join her. He'd never seemed at ease inside carriages and she wasn't in a mood to push him on that.

Kahlan mindlessly watched the scenery flicker by and listened to the rattle of the carriage and the jingle of the horses' harnesses. She sat up straight when she realized she recognized the trees around her. She was in the Morrow Woods near where she and Richard had met Jennsen for the first time. Her mind raced with ideas of how to escape. Kahlan knew the lay of the land here and she doubted that she would be bound tonight. Except that Darken Rahl never took the key to her collar with him on these jaunts. The key was the only way to get the collar off without dying. Without her powers she was no use to Richard.

When they camped that night she realized Darken Rahl was no longer with them.

***

The dispute was surprisingly easy to solve by Kahlan's standards. The families hadn't been willing to admit they'd been swindled and so had both continued to claim a flock of sheep supposedly owned by both of them. The stubborn insistence on sole ownership was understandable once Kahlan knew that the fields the sheep were grazing on were being rented from a third family who had already charged both families for the full amount of the flock. She would have found it funny if she hadn't seen too many arguments like that one erupt into violence that overtook everyone in the area.

The real excitement came on the return trip. Kahlan's first clue was a familiar shout and the sound of men fighting. Kahlan fought her dress to get out of the carriage, her impractical skirts tangling her legs. She hit the ground, bruising her shoulder, and set off for the trees to get out of the line of fire. She paused by a fallen soldier and grabbed his sword.

Kahlan reflexively tried to scream when a grubby hand shot out to cover her mouth.

"It's me! Kahlan, it's me!" Richard whispered urgently in her ear.

"Richard?" Kahlan made a conscious effort to relax.

Richard pulled her into a hug. "I've been looking for you."

Kahlan was certain she felt her ribs creak. "You found me." It made her uneasy to think about how difficult it was to sound happy about that. She told herself she was just surprised.

"Come on, we have to get out of here." Richard pulled away and tugged on her hand.

"I can't." She pulled down the collar of her dress so he could see the Rada'Han. His eyes were briefly lit by Wizard's Fire as Zedd burned some more of the soldiers sent to guard Kahlan.

"Zedd can figure out a way to get it off." Richard told her.

"No, Richard, the key is the only way to get it off." Kahlan gritted her teeth.

"Where's the key?" Richard was frowning hard and she finally saw him well enough to know he wasn't looking as healthy as he usually did.

Kahlan took a deep breath and tried to call on her patience. She may be out in the open, away from her guards, and with the Seeker but she wasn't free yet. "Only Darken knows where the key is and he's not here. I have to go back."

"What? No!" Richard vehemently shook his head. "I can't let you do that."

"Richard, we don't have a choice." Kahlan stopped herself from saying more in that vein in case he got stubborn and decided to prove her wrong. "I have a plan," she attempted to be soothing.

"What is it?" Richard demanded.

"I'm earning his trust enough that at some point when he takes the Rada'Han off, which is fairly often, there will be an opening. I'll meet up with you." She continued talking through Richard's protest. "If I come back after this it'll happen even sooner since he'll know I didn't have to come back."

"I can't let you do this," Richard said again, eyes pleading.

Kahlan resolutely squared her shoulders. "I have to. I'm no good to you without my powers."

"That's not true. I need you!"

"You have Alana." Kahlan caught sight of the white clad woman across the battle field. "Until I get back you'll be fine."

"I don't need a Confessor, I need you. Kahlan Amnell. I can't do it without you. You said you'd never leave my side again."

Months of rage and frustration bubbled to the surface and burst across Kahlan's mind in fireworks of such heat that she wasn't sure how she didn't catch on fire right then and there. "I can do this. I will do this. Then I will come back. You will not stop me and he will not stop me. None of you own me!"

Richard backed away from her slowly with an expression that was half fear and half pleading.

Kahlan gulped tears she hadn't known she was crying. She wanted to take those words back. She wanted to scream them louder. She was weary of the pushing and pulling. Why couldn't he just listen to her for once instead of arguing with everything she said? She threw down the sword and marched past a man with his intestines hanging out, hem dragging in the mud and blood. She tuned out the screaming and held her hands up in the air.

***

Jennsen was wrapping a bandage around Alana's hand when her brother finally dragged himself back to camp. "What happened?"

"She wouldn't come." Richard sat next to the fire, staring into its depths.

"Did she say why?" Alana's concerned voice piped up. "She wouldn't do that without a reason."

"She was wearing a Rada'Han." Richard said dully, not looking up. "She wanted to escape when he took it off her."

"He?" Jennsen asked. "Oh. Ohhhh." Her bright blue eyes widened.

"She called him Darken." Richard said in the same tone as before.

Alana sighed deeply. "She's still Kahlan, the woman who would have stayed behind when the rest of us left, and the woman who disobeyed Mother Confessor Serena for you."

"I took the long way around to throw them off our scent." Zedd panted. "Where's Kahlan?"

***

Darken Rahl eyed the highest ranking survivor. "She just stood in the middle with her hands up."

"Yes, milord." The man licked his lips nervously. "She said she could do more good at your side than the Seeker's."

Darken Rahl chuckled. "You may go." He went to find the Mother Confessor. She had changed her dress and cleaned off the smoke and blood. She was bewitching. "The men said you claimed you could do more good with me than the Seeker. Do you expect me to believe that?"

"No." Her smile was forced. "Where were you?"

"I was called away for something else." Darken Rahl said. "It relates to the war effort so I won't tempt you to action. So why did you come back? You could have run."

"I want to have my powers when I escape. Or at least the choice of whether or not to use my powers." Kahlan smiled bleakly.

"That I'll believe." Darken admitted.

Kahlan stood and stretched. "Then you'll take this thing off me like you promised?" She gestured at the Rada'Han.

Darken stepped in close to her as he undid the locking mechanism. The scent of her soap wafted up to meet him.

Kahlan entwined her fingers in his hair as she pulled him in for a kiss.

"Are you planning to make your escape right now?" Darken said breathlessly. His colors really did become her.

"No. I swear I'm not doing anything that I didn't already plan on doing." Kahlan laughed throatily.

"Then I'll be sure to be on my guard." Darken placed his hands on her waist. It was so warm and soft under his hands. He was having trouble thinking.

"Your room?" Kahlan nuzzled Darken's throat and he couldn't help but notice that this hid her face from him.

"No. But not yours either." He guided her to one of the spare rooms and began removing his clothes.


	9. Chapter 9

Kahlan felt scooped out. Hollow. She sat up and looked at Darken Rahl's sweaty, naked form. His muscles glistened in the candlelight. She traced a finger over his chest. When he opened his eyes and looked at her she sneered at him. "You disgust me."

Darken smirked up at her. "You're beautiful too."

Kahlan made a disgusted sound and grabbed her dress. "I need to bathe again."

"Do you plan to attack my Mord Sith again?" Darken Rahl asked as he stood and began dressing himself.

"Not in the immediate future." Kahlan said tartly.

Darken Rahl rolled over to her side of the bed and kissed her throat.

She stiffened. Kahlan was still unused to being touched. Still stranger was to touch someone who had no reason to be afraid of her power. She was ashamed of how badly she craved that feeling. All of his fear of her was based on what she could do as a person. She let go of the dress and gently wrapped her hands around his neck.

Darken looked at her with eyes that seemed to pierce her mind and soul. Kahlan was certain he saw all the ugly thoughts creeping around in her head and he was afraid. He was afraid as he lifted his hand to touch her cheek and spoke quietly, "Is this your great plan? To strangle me after bedding me?"

"Would you resist?" Kahlan asked. She had learned to fake emotions well enough to inject a note of curiosity. "Or do you want to be free? I can free you, Darken Rahl. You find your title to be a heavy burden." She kissed his forehead. "I can release you."

Darken Rahl jerked out of her grip and slapped her so hard she saw stars. "You're forgetting who's the prisoner here."

Kahlan looked up at him without fear for the first time. "We're all prisoners to our past, Lord Rahl." She spoke his title mockingly, a sneer twisting her lips. "We're all haunted by our fathers. For good or for ill."

Darken grunted thoughtfully. "I'd still rather live than die. Even by such lovely hands as yours."

Kahlan's head still rang as she pulled on her shift. She examined her hands. They were much callused from her knife work. "How would you want to die then?"

"I'd rather not if I could help it." Darken pulled on his trousers.

"Your father is in the Underworld." Kahlan noted. Ignoring Darken while he glared ferociously, she slipped on her dress the color of old blood. "I know what you're thinking but it wouldn't do any good. Killing me would not profit you anything. Especially since I'm only saying things that are true."

"What did I say? People are afraid of the truth." Darken Rahl pulled on the rest of his red costume. "Tell me, why do you fear your father?"

"I don't fear him." Kahlan started lacing up.

Darken Rahl came up behind her and began doing up her dress. "It doesn't look that way to me."

"I'm not afraid anymore." She clenched her hands in her skirts as she thought about turning around to throttle him. "He made me Confess people for him. When I refused he tied me up until I would."

"You expected... ah." Darken gently took her shoulders and turned her around. "So you do understand why I killed the others in your Order. I'm not asking you to agree."

"I also understand why you wanted to steal my sister's child." Kahlan glared and felt proud of herself for not shrugging off his hands. "You would have done the same to him and you would have done it even if he had been a girl."

"No. I would have raised that child with more love and care than you can imagine. I know what children who are treated harshly do to their parents." Darken smiled faintly.

Kahlan took a shallow breath. He was telling the truth as he believed it. "I believe you." She needed a bath more now than ever.

***

Darken Rahl looked over the prisoner list and checked the names on it against the last census of the town of Brennidon. One of the reports that his incompetent soldiers had salvaged before they had been run out of that cursed place. In it were the names of all the women who had claimed to be the Seeker's mother. He had sent for all the papers from Brennidon when the soldiers who had survived Denna's final mission had reported back to him that Tarralyn Zorander was the Seeker's mother. Now he had finally located the list. He couldn't keep the smile off his face as he went down to the transport spell room.

He appeared back at the People's Palace in a flare of light, pieces of parchment and vellum safely in a leather case. He went to the tower he kept the Mother Confessor in. By now there were guards on the stairwell and she could travel freely between the bedroom and study he had set up for her. The tower had been designed centuries ago to hold important officials and strategists of dubious loyalty by Lord Dalen Rahl. It was one of many additions over the generations that made the Palace the seat of power for the House of Rahl. The sound proofing spells were especially useful in cutting prisoners off from the rhythms of castle life.

He knocked loudly and still found Kahlan asleep in her study. A book he didn't recognize propped up her head and she was perilously close to drooling on the reports under her nose. "Lady Kahlan. Lady Kahlan, I have something I need to discuss with you."

Kahlan made sleepy noises as she sat up. Darken was pleased to note that she didn't flinch at the sound of his voice. "Mmm, what?"

He opened the leather case and placed the list of women who claimed to be the Seeker's mother in front of Kahlan. "Two weeks ago my soldiers secured the town of Brennidon. It isn't a major military target but it is an important symbol to the Resistance. These women all claimed to have given birth to your Seeker. Now we both know that none of them actually did because she was in D'Hara. But here is a list of those who are both on this list and the list of the names of prisoners. We know the first list to be accurate enough because we required the citizens to have identification with them at all times."

"What do you want from me? Why are you telling me this?" Kahlan remained poised.

"I want you to decide their punishment." Darken Rahl smiled benignly. "They must be punished for lying to D'Haran troops."

"You want me to sanction the killing of civilians." Kahlan gave him a look. "These tests are pointless."

"I didn't say death had to be their punishment." Darken Rahl's smile grew. "What would be their punishment for defying the monarch of the Midlands? I can't imagine even Queen Cyrilla would let that go without requiring some sort of reparation."

Kahlan's gaze sharpened. "That's true but you're not their rightful liege lord. They have a responsibility to foment rebellion, sabotage your works and try to get their liege lord back. The part where you killed their first born sons alone would warrant that reaction."

"Even knowing what it might cost their neighbors?" Darken's smile didn't slip. 

"You would be the one killing the neighbors so it would still be you enforcing your will on them. You're the invader. People aren't going to peacefully let you send their sons to die." Kahlan sighed. "Even if you're doing it so your people don’t starve. Your taxes are high," she held up a hand to forestall comment. "I know you're not using them to enrich yourself and that most of it is paid out to your armies and road works."

"The more resources they have on hand, the more resources they can pour into rebelling." Darken hesitated and he knew she noticed. Anyone else would have missed it but now he had her undivided attention. "When I consolidated my rule after I killed my father I had to... retire several of his generals. I promoted men based on loyalty rather than skill. Loyalty should be rewarded with loyalty and disloyalty should be swiftly punished."

"But if you don't reward skill then why should people even try?" Kahlan asked.

"Isn't failing to try your hardest being disloyal, if not to yourself then to the people who rely on you?" Darken suggested. Darken Rahl saw that he had struck a nerve in the way her hands came up almost as if to ward off a blow or shove his words aside and the frown lines that appeared between her eyebrows. "I'd rather have someone loyal to me of moderate skill than an expert who might sell my secrets to the enemy."

"Getting back to what you were saying before, would community service seem an acceptable punishment to you?" Kahlan said thoughtfully.

"As long as it was a project that would not give them an opportunity to further aid the Resistance." 

"Fair enough." Kahlan acknowledged. "How about ninety days of scrubbing the buildings and streets. Simple, mindless work that lets everyone see they aren't getting away with it for nothing. Delay the sentence until summer when it's at its hottest and dust is everywhere. As I remember it some of these women are older and this will be plenty strenuous for them. Besides, as much terror as you might inspire by locking two dozen women away or putting them in the stocks you'd still just be making them into a kind of martyr."

That was exactly why he had come to her. "Thank you, Lady Kahlan. That is an excellent solution." Darken Rahl smiled his approval, knowing that somewhere deep inside it chafed her. "I will issue the orders tomorrow."

Kahlan smiled in a way that left Darken vaguely worried. "I've been thinking. You could offer amnesty to anyone who lays down their arms and surrenders to you. Not all of them would of course. But such a show of mercy would sway many people to your side. It would show who was so entrenched against you that they won't give up fighting even when it's in their best interest."

"I'll take that under advisement." Darken forced a smile. The way she was looking at him was very worrying. "Do you have any further suggestions?" The heat in her eyes could have melted the ice sculpture Darken Rahl had witnessed at the birthday celebration of one of the crowned heads of the Midlands. He gazed into her clear eyes and upgraded that to all the ice sculptures he had ever seen. At the same time.

Kahlan stood and slowly walked over to Darken. "Yes, yes I do." she pulled him into another kiss.

***

"There's news from Brennidon." Zedd announced to the circle of young people sitting around the fire. 

Jennsen sat in between Richard and Alana, trying to pretend that she didn't notice the Confessor's mood. Jennsen understood how much Kahlan meant to her brother but she also could see why Alana felt like he was giving too little weight to her contributions simply because she wasn't Kahlan. The red head had to bite her tongue every time she heard Richard say that Kahlan would have agreed with him or that Kahlan would have done things differently. It had been barely noticeable when Jennsen had first joined them. Just a tightening around her brother's eyes and shoulders when he disagreed with Alana and a slight hint of a glare in Alana's eyes when Zedd agreed with the Seeker. Since Kahlan had willingly gone back to Darken Rahl things had rapidly degenerated into sniping back and forth. Jennsen was tired of it. "What news, grandfather?" Jennsen tried to keep her voice steady.

"The town of Brennidon has been reconquered by the D'Harans." Zedd said heavily as he ladled himself some of the stew that was hanging over the fire.

Jennsen suspected that their grandfather was trying to pull Richard out of his dark mood. She watched Richard from the corner of her eye. "I could go scout. No one there knows what I look like."

"No, we couldn't ask that of you." Her grandfather said quickly.

"We're waiting here for Kahlan." Richard said firmly. "If we leave she might take months to find us again."

"For how long?" Jennsen asked the question they had all been aching to voice.

"What?" Betrayal filled every line of Richard's face.

"How long do we wait for Kahlan?" Jennsen asked patiently, hating the pain she was causing her brother. The brother she should have known growing up.

"She's coming back!" Richard insisted. "We can't abandon her."

"Lord Rahl is very persuasive." Jennsen said in her mousy voice. "He had me thinking you were the villain."

"Kahlan isn't you!" Richard snapped.

"Richard!" Zedd's voice seemed too large for the space they were in. "She went willingly. Even if she does escape it might not be for months. What do you plan to do until then? She won't thank you for dropping everything. She'd want you out there helping people."

Richard's face seemed to crumple. There were no tears but the waves of agony rolling off of him were almost tangible. Jennsen wished she knew him well enough to know what to say. "Kahlan will come back." He insisted finally.

Alana sat still as a stone. "I will stay by the Seeker's side until the Mother Confessor has returned."

Zedd sighed and met Jennsen's eyes and she knew they were going to wait.

***

The fifth time Kahlan bedded Darken they did it in a part of the People's Palace without the wards. The seventh time was the one Kahlan chose to escape. She was free of the Rada'Han and had learned Darken well enough to wear him down until he fell asleep. There was a small voice inside her head screaming about the way that for the last three times she hadn't been able to imagine she was making love to Richard. Her every action had been intensely focused on getting Darken to such a state that he couldn't stop her. Kahlan admired the pattern of scratches on his back while she put on her shift. 

She knew she had to act quickly. Kahlan had picked this time because most of the Mord Sith were busy at the devotional. All she had to face was the Dragon Corps. "I wish to return to my rooms to work." The set of her jaw dared the guard to defy her.

Kahlan knew she was taking a gamble but luck was with her and the guard took her on a course that was familiar. At a servant's entry she had noticed before she slipped away from the complacent guard and hurried down towards where she would have placed the laundry if she were a Wizard. It took her only a few minutes to find it and then the alarms started sounding. Running, Kahlan pulled on a servant's dress and a square of cloth to cover her hair. She slowed as she neared a servant exit and grabbed a bucket. Keeping her head down she filled the bucket with water.

The Mother Confessor stood still and waited in the open for a quad to pass. After she had counted for ten minutes she walked towards Darken Rahl's rooms. Without haste and no more fear than those around her she reached where Denna had described the Mord Sith entrance. She used those tunnels to leave the People's Palace while the guards locked all the other gates.

***

Six hours after the Mother Confessor escaped Darken Rahl cut the throat of his Captain of the Guard and used the man's blood to write a message in his journeybook to all the forts nearby to be on the lookout for Kahlan Amnell. Not that he expected them to catch her unless she wanted to be caught but it felt like he was doing something.

Even Egremont was hiding from him at the moment. "Cara," Darken called softly. "Take Berdine and Raina and search the Morrow Woods. Tell them if you succeed I'll let them be assigned to the same Temple."

"Yes, my Lord." Cara turned smartly and left.

***

Jennsen was gathering firewood when she heard someone moving around the woods. She blinked as a woman in a dun colored dress stepped into view. "Kahlan?"

"Jennsen." Kahlan breathed out a long gust of air. "Can you take me to Richard?"

Jennsen nodded, eyes wide. "It's good to see you again, Kahlan." She trotted off.

"Let me take some of that for you." Kahlan picked up some of the firewood.

"Are you- Are you alright?" Jennsen looked anxiously at Kahlan. "Lord Rahl didn't hurt you?"

"He did but I'm fine." Kahlan smiled reassuringly.

"He didn't torture me. I told Richard he did because he said to and then... I couldn't explain it to Richard." Jennsen's lower lip trembled. "He said he was our brother, Richard and I."

Kahlan nodded serenely. "He said the same thing to me. I believe him. At least about him and Richard being brothers."

Jennsen nodded. "He was so... understanding. It wasn't what I would have expected." Jennsen met Kahlan's eyes. "But we should oppose him anyway."

"I do." Kahlan smiled. "You have no idea how much."

***

Kahlan made sure her smile didn't falter as she caught Richard and Alana in the middle of an argument about her. She hugged Alana first and then Richard. "I'm so glad to see you both." She needed to allay their suspicions so they wouldn't suspect she was brainwashed. "I told you I'd get free with my powers." Richard hugged her hard enough she had trouble breathing. "I'm here but they'll be looking for me. We need to move."

Richard held on a little longer. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." Kahlan gave him a happy smile with a touch of regret for time lost. Deep inside there was a part of her that wanted to run through woods shouting her freedom. True freedom for the first time in... Ever. She was choosing her path; not her mother, not her father, not Serena, not Richard and not Darken Rahl. It was intoxicating.

Richard packed his things into his pack and his mouth dropped open as he watched Kahlan uncover her hair. He gaped for a moment while she tried not to laugh.

She waited until after Zedd hugged her and they were on their way to start talking business. "Can you tell me why you and Alana didn't use the power of Orden by now?"

Zedd cleared his throat. "According to one of Shota's visions it wouldn't have worked."

"We think it might be because you and I are in love so it's more than just a confessor's touch; it's the bond between Seeker and Confessor that's important." Richard explained.

Kahlan nodded. "I was able to look at some of Lord Rahl's library and I've been thinking. What if we don't need to kill Lord Rahl to defeat him?"

"He's killed thousands of innocent people," Richard protested. "He needs to be brought to justice."

"Yes, but killing him would create a power vacuum. Someone else would take his place." Kahlan countered, ignoring Alana's look of horror. "No one knows D'Hara as well as he does. What if we force him to help us dismantle his empire?"

"The Rahl bond keeps the people of D'Hara bound to him. As soon as we pull the boxes apart they'll be bound to him again. If you stop touching Richard while the Boxes are together then he'll become evil again." Zedd watched Kahlan's reaction.

"So we transfer the Rahl bond to Richard." Kahlan answered promptly. She looked around and kept track of her companions' reactions. Jennsen's eyes were wide but Kahlan saw no sign of protest. Alana's mouth was tight with displeasure but she looked thoughtful. That could be good or bad. It was hard to tell with Alana. Zedd looked horrified and puzzled while Richard just shook his head.

"How could that work?" Zedd asked. "The Rahl bond was created by powerful magic and see what it has done."

"According to one of the books I found the Power of Orden doesn't just make whoever puts the Boxes into a person who must be obeyed no matter what, it can change the very fabric of reality." Kahlan said, careful not to sound too enthusiastic. 

"Wouldn't that make me a Rahl?" Richard said with distaste. 

"Technically you already are." Kahlan only caught Zedd's reaction to this statement because she was looking for it. He knew. 

"How- What-" Richard sputtered.

"He said we all had the same father." Jennsen said softly. 

"And you didn't tell me?!" Richard looked as hurt and angry as he had when he found out Zedd was his grandfather but there was horror blooming behind his eyes.

"I was back with you and I didn't want to talk about it." Jennsen crossed her arms defensively. "You would have kept asking questions and I just wanted to forget."

Kahlan remembered what Darken has said about people being afraid of the truth and Zedd's explanation of the Wizard's First Rule. People believed lies out of fear and hope. But she had read Darken's heart just as she was reading Richard's now.

"It's all right, child," Zedd comforted Jennsen. "It must have been horrible enough without that."

Richard frowned hard. "So Darken Rahl is my brother and you want me to take his place."

"He is very convinced that Alric Rahl was trying to prepare for something. I think it would be better to have you, the Seeker, in a position to take the reins for the next battle if necessary than Darken Rahl." This was absolutely true. She gave Richard a look filled with sympathy. This birthright wasn't his fault. "And Darken Rahl isn't sure which one of his bastard siblings would get the bond in the event of his death. If it does turn out that having a Lord Rahl is necessary wouldn't it be better if we knew where he was and what he was capable of? You would be a good Lord Rahl."

Richard looked hesitant.

"We have the Power of Orden." Kahlan pointed out. "We could undo it if it doesn't work."

Zedd still looked unconvinced. "Orden and the Rahl bond are both ancient, powerful magics. You saw what happened when Giller experimented with the Shurkia. These are not toys."

"She has a point." Alana said grudgingly.

"It's up to you, of course." Kahlan said to Richard.

"So you're telling me there was a wizard a long time ago who thought this bond would be necessary sometime in the future." Richard said slowly. "And I'm one of his descendants. I won't help take away people's free will."

"You've met the D'Harans and you've seen people in Hartland who have sworn themselves to Lord Rahl. They're as capable of choice as anyone else. But in swearing obedience they gain some sort of protection. The record was unclear on that." Kahlan explained. "The soldier who offered to help us right after we rescued Chase's family was bound to Lord Rahl. I would never ask you to take someone's will away." Even though he had often required her to do that very thing.

Richard nodded slowly, mulling over her words. "I'll try it."

Zedd looked torn and Kahlan was sorry for that. She liked the old man and would have liked to have his approval. But liking and needing weren't the same thing. "Now?" he asked, watching his grandson pull out the bag containing the Boxes of Orden.

"Now. We've spent enough time running all over the countryside. I want to end this now." Richard said decisively. He guided them a little ways off the path and sank to his knees. 

Jennsen stood just out of Richard's reach and watched him pull out the jeweled golden Boxes. They glowed and flashed with a light that had nothing to do with the sun. Kahlan knelt opposite Richard and met his eyes steadily. He pushed the boxes together and his eyes glowed with golden eldritch light. Kahlan grasped him under his throat and golden sparkles swirled around them in a band like a ring.

"Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours." Kahlan intoned somberly.


	10. Chapter 10

Darken Rahl felt the power leave him. It was like the world turned just a little duller, a little more watered down. He couldn't say when those colors had been new or the air had become sweeter. It had all been lost in the exhilaration of finally besting his father.

Egremont appeared in Darken's doorway. He could tell the other man knew by the expression in his eyes. "My Lord, you need to hide."

"Yes," Darken's mind reeled helplessly. "I must go." He tried to look within and see how much of his power remained. Much of his magical ability had stemmed from the Rahl bond and his willingness to use blood magic. Even so, he would not have dared take on First Wizard Zorander in a fair fight. Giller was dead, his sorcerers were no longer bound to be loyal to him, his armies were no longer truly his, his Mord Sith owed him nothing and yet, Egremont still wished to serve him. "Do you know where?"

The expression in Egremont's eyes as he handed Darken a spare uniform wasn't pity. Darken felt himself regressing back to a scared boy in a uniform two sizes too big and carrying a grudge the size of a gar. Darken could never think of him as a father but Egremont had taken better care of him than Darken would have if their positions had been reversed. "You'll have to leave," Egremont said gently. "I'll stall them as long as I can, my Lord." 

"Why do you do it?" Darken asked a question that had been burning in his mind since his mid teens. Most of his generals followed him out of fear of what would happen to them and their families if they didn't or out of the hope that Lord Rahl would richly reward them. But not Egremont. That was why he was one of the few Darken kept by his side.

"Because you are and will always be my Lord." Egremont's expression was sad. "You need to hurry."

***

Kahlan released Richard, pale green afterimages dancing in front of her eyes. Jennsen kicked the Boxes apart and Richard sat back. For a moment all Kahlan could hear was her own heartbeat and Richard's raspy breaths. She looked up despite wanting to lie down and go to sleep for a month.

Richard looked up and went stock still. Kahlan turned around and saw three Mord Sith approaching, their dark red leathers gleaming faintly in the soft sunlight that filtered through the interlaced branches of the trees. Kahlan recognized them and was ready to scramble away when she saw Cara stare down at her Agiel with an uncertain expression Kahlan had never seen on a Mord Sith before.

"Lord Rahl?" Cara demanded brusquely, reholstering her Agiel.

"I guess so." Richard heaved himself to his feet.

Kahlan stood slowly. Every joint seemed to pop as she stood. It had been a long walk followed by a draining stint with her power. If she had to go too much farther today she was going to collapse. Her very weight hurt her feet and shoulders. "Do we have any horses?" Not that being jounced and shaken by a horse was what she wanted to do right but she wasn't letting Richard out of her sight.

Zedd shook his head with a sympathetic look.

Cara pursed her lips and surveyed the group with her hands on her hips. "We're at the service of Lord Rahl."

"Well, I release you." Richard frowned. "You and your sisters are free as long as you don't hurt anyone."

Kahlan bit down on a snide remark. "Hello, Raina. Berdine. Dar- Lord Rahl- Darken Rahl sent you? Together?" Kahlan felt like her mind was slowly coming to a shuddering halt.

"Yes, Lady Kahlan." Raina answered in the careful, steely tone all the Mord Sith spoke in.

That earned Kahlan sharp looks from Zedd and Richard. Zedd cleared his throat loudly. "Mother Confessor Kahlan, are you feeling well?" He stressed her title.

Kahlan waved a hand. "It's been a fatiguing day."

Mistress Cara ignored the byplay and kept her attention focused on Richard with the sharpness of a razor. "We exist to serve Lord Rahl."

Richard looked confused and disturbed. "I'm giving you your freedom."

Cara glared at Richard. "And with my freedom I choose to serve you."

"And I." Raina and Berdine echoed.

Richard glared back. "Go build new lives; get married, have children."

"You just gave us our freedom." Cara smiled coldly.

Richard made a frustrated noise and looked to his grandfather for support. Zedd held up his hands, palms out. Richard sighed noisily, radiating irritation.

Alana waved Kahlan back. "We'll go to the People's Palace. You stay here and sleep. You look like you need it."

Richard frowned harder. "I just got her back."

Kahlan sighed. "I am very tired," she admitted. "But I don't think you want to leave the People's Palace and its entire staff that much time to prepare for you. I'll catch up."

Richard's frown of frustration changed to a concerned look. "You're sure you'll be fine?"

"Yes," Kahlan nodded sharply. "You could leave Raina and Berdine here to stand watch if you're worried."

"You know their names? Of course you know their names." Richard smiled sheepishly. "You two will keep her safe?"

"You can count on us, Lord Rahl." Berdine said coolly.

***

Kahlan awoke to see Shota standing over her. The witch's long hair shimmered like the sunlight in her grove. Even her skin was like part of the grove made flesh. Kahlan blinked sleepily and pulled herself into a sitting position. Twisting, she popped her back and groaned. "Good morning."

Shota had her hands in the air and was watching the two Mord Sith with the calm wariness that Kahlan had once seen a cat use on an eagle. "Good morning, Mother Confessor."

Kahlan stood feeling refreshed and calmer than she had for months. "Are you staying for breakfast?"

"No, I think I'll be on my way by then." Shota didn't look at the Mord Sith as she sat on a fallen log.

Kahlan pulled a loaf of bread out of the pack Richard had left her and broke off a piece. "I'll be fine," she told Raina and Berdine.

Raina raised a skeptical eyebrow but nodded to Berdine and walked out of sight.

"I've been looking into the future." Shota said with only an undertone of reluctance. "I have seen a future I would rather be averted and you are the only one who can do it."

Kahlan remembered everything she could about what Zedd had said about changing the future. "Before you tell me, doesn't telling me about it change things?"

"Yes and no. In this case more no than yes." Shota cleared her throat. "If you and Richard have a child it will be a boy. You and I both know exactly what Richard would do if that were the case."

"Will you tell Richard?" Kahlan asked, feeling like a coward. Thoughts of her nephew sprang to mind but she couldn't afford to leave. There was so much she needed to do, so much she could do for the people of both the Midlands and D'Hara.

"If I thought he would listen to me, I would." Shota's disgruntled tone almost made Kahlan laugh. 

"He is very stubborn." Kahlan agreed. "You're sure? My sister had a boy. It doesn't happen more than once a generation."

Now there was no mistaking the reluctance in Shota's manner. "If you and Lord Rahl, the previous Lord Rahl I should say, had conceived a child that would have been a boy as well." Kahlan gaped wordlessly while Shota continued. "That I won't mention to Richard unless you make it necessary. I have seen the future a male Confessor could bring and I will not let it come to pass."

Kahlan closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the still, forest air. "I understand."

"I hope so."

***

Jennsen wandered around the People's Palace with wide eyes. She'd been inside twice before and both times she had been too distracted to really appreciate it. Most of it was dark and dank like the place she had woken up for her second visit but there were light, airy places where the walls were covered with art. Jennsen didn't know who the figures depicted in the murals were or what the great battles they contained were about. She was mesmerized by the shapes and the sheer quantity.

"This has been the seat of power for the House of Rahl for generations." Zedd announced from over Jennsen's right shoulder. "It's built on the sweat and blood of tens of thousands of D'Harans."

"Richard will change that." Jennsen smiled cheerfully. She looked at the wall again. "It is very beautiful. What's it about?" It hadn't taken Jennsen long to catch on to her grandfather's love of telling stories.

"This one is about Alric Rahl, the man who founded the House of Rahl." Zedd said. "Down at that end is Aydindril and the First Wizards of that age." He reached up but didn't touch the wall. "These here are the gars that Alric Rahl designed. Those lizard men on the other end are the Mriswith the other Wizards created-"

The sound of running footsteps heralded Richard's arrival. "You have to see this."

Jennsen and Zedd followed Richard to a courtyard. Jennsen blinked in surprise as her mind finally grasped what she was seeing. Rows and rows of flowers stretched out in orderly rows. She tuned out her grandfather's exclamations about the living conditions of the people of D'Hara. Sitting on a bench she simply stared out at it and was reminded of the strange sincerity in Darken's voice when he told her that every villain wanted to be loved. Jennsen looked up at her grandfather and was struck by the love in his eyes when he looked at Richard.

***

Darken ran into the woods as soon as he was out of sight of the People's Palace. He stripped off his helmet and gulped air that didn't smell like stale sweat. The fear hit him hard enough to knock the wind out of his lungs. The urge to curl up into a fetal ball and wait to wake up nearly overpowered Darken. He panted as he pulled off the mail since now he'd be taken for a deserter even if he wasn't recognized. He used mud to obscure the uniform's design, muttering invectives against his dead father the whole time.

Eventually Darken decided that the world was not going to turn right side up anytime soon and he might as well get going. But to get going he had to have somewhere to go. Finally he sighed and picked a direction. For the first couple hours he didn't focus on anything, just moving as far and fast as he could. When the sun went down he continued until his feet felt like lead and his stomach like it was trying to digest his mind. That was when he remembered he had brought food.

Darken huddled in some tree roots while he ate and tried to figure out where he was. He breathed on his hands and flexed his fingers, trying to get the circulation going again. The sound of his knuckles creaking and the realization that his nose was running brought Darken crashing back to ground. Life would go on. He was no longer Lord Rahl. Somehow. Miraculously. But life would continue anyway. He could go away somewhere and live a different life. Find out what he'd been missing. 

Except what would he be doing? He didn't have a trade. The only things he knew were leadership and soldiering. Darken couldn't think of anywhere that would simply let him take over as ruler or even as a foot soldier. He would be far more likely to end up in some monarch's dungeon as a holder for various tools of the torture trade.

Darken only realized he'd dozed off when he snorted himself awake. He stomped his feet a few times and clapped his hands hard. Telling himself he'd had worse nights Darken started hiking again. Every twinge from a muscle not used to the awkward position he'd slept in felt like a reminder from his father about not getting close to people. 

The weak, early morning sun made the world look more washed out than the previous day. Darken shivered at the ghostly quality of his surroundings. The world was split into those who got stepped on and those who did the stepping. He had to figure out some way to remain in the first group.

Waiting for Darken at the edge of the forest was something that seemed too perfectly ripped from his nightmares to be real. Consequently the only thing he managed to do before the Agiel hit him in the gut was blink. "Hello Hania," he wheezed out.

"No talking." Hania pressed the Agiel against Darken's neck. "Mistress Cara thought you might come this way. She sent word." She whistled sharply enough that Darken had to reflect on what it would be like to be both no longer Lord Rahl and no longer able to hear.

The string of Mord Sith that slowly gathered around Darken and Hania gave Darken a chance to reflect on how successful he had been as Lord Rahl. And how much he might enjoy his stay in one of the Temples he'd helped staff. And how little chance he stood of getting away. Darken welcomed the pain that swept away all his thoughts.

***

Kahlan looked at the interior of the People's Palace with new eyes. Instead of being deep in enemy territory these were now her people to protect. She knew that going up to them and asking them their names would be disruptive and likely get them in trouble with whoever they answered to. Nevertheless she wanted to get to know these people who had been oppressed by Darken for years. She was wandering around, looking people in the eyes and trying to determine what kind of people they were when Cara interrupted.

"Lady Kahlan," Cara greeted. "We thought you might want to question General Egremont."

"Thank you." Kahlan nodded grimly. "Where is he being held?"

"The Generals' memorial." Cara said smugly. "Have you been there?"

"Can't say as I have." Kahlan smiled her mood lifting. "Would you guide me there?"

"Gladly," Cara smiled. "I'm sure our previous lord and master neglected to give you the grand tour. He was single minded at the best of times and ever since your Seeker turned up it hasn't been the best of times."

"No, he didn't." Kahlan said.

"This is the Hall of Our Glorious Forefathers. May they rest in peace." Cara said dryly as they passed through a hall full of murals. "Down that way are the dining hall and the servants' quarters. Here is the kitchen garden and here we are. The Generals' Memorial kept here to remind us all why we do what we do."

"Why do you do what you do?" Kahlan asked curiously. Cara intrigued her. She had the Mord Sith attitude and aggression but unlike her Sisters she seemed to have some flexibility. Not much compared to normal people but compared to other Mord Sith she was less rigid in her thinking.

"Is this a test? I'm loyal to Lord Rahl, whoever that may be." Cara said coolly.

"I'm sure." Kahlan hesitated. "I want to know the people I'm going to be working with in the future."

"The former Lord Rahl did think you were different from the other Confessors." Cara said thoughtfully. "We do what we do to defend our home. Our entire purpose is in defending our Sisterhood and our Lord." When Kahlan said nothing she huffed in annoyance. "I do what I do because I'm good at it and I don't trust anyone else to do it right."

Kahlan smiled. "I know that feeling," she stepped into the memorial. Her first impression was awe. Kahlan's second impression was that it was much more crowded than she would have thought. It was a couple minutes before she stopped looking around and focused her attention on General Egremont. "Hello, General. I'm here to ask you some questions."

"I won't betray him." General Egremont was more resigned than belligerent.

Kahlan had noticed Zedd but hadn't paid much attention to him until he spoke. "Just Confess him. He'll tell us everything he knows."

Kahlan turned away from him before the grimace reached her mouth. "I'd rather not do it that way if I can help it," she said gently, making eye contact with Egremont.

General Egremont gave her an obdurate look while Zedd sighed in frustration. "Confess him! Otherwise he won't tell us anything. You don't want Darken running around loose." When Kahlan stayed stock still Zedd snorted in disgust. "You'd let this D'Haran scum go without justice? You know the things he's done. This man coordinated the hunt for your sisters."

"You aren't the one who'd have to have this piece of D'Haran scum in love with you." Kahlan rounded on Zedd.

"A Mother Confessor too squeamish to do her duty?" Zedd asked scornfully. "If you don't, Alana will.

Kahlan growled and closed her eyes. She strode over to General Egremont and looked into his eyes one last time before reaching up to grab him under the chin. She unleashed her power into him. Weakened she fell back, refusing to acknowledge Zedd's presence even to glare at him.

"Mistress," Egremont breathed out.

"Tell me where Darken Rahl went." Kahlan demanded, trying not to vomit.

"I'm sorry, Mistress. I don't know." General Egremont was puppyishly eager to please. "I knew either you or the Seeker's new Confessor would get me. I didn't want to betray him. I'm so sorry."

Kahlan took a deep, steadying breath. "Where would you guess he would go?"

"He escaped wearing one of our uniforms through the special bolt hole. It's been several hours and he could have gone any direction." Egremont said. "But I've known him since he was a boy. He probably turned towards the Midlands rather than go deeper into D'Hara. He knows that in D'Hara almost everyone will follow the new Lord Rahl and his chances of going unnoticed are better in the Midlands. Not so many people know what he looks like there."

"Stay here for the time being. When we get to dealing with the troops you will give Richard every bit of cooperation you would give me." Kahlan didn't listen to his affirmative. As she left the memorial she noticed the flowers under the more recent names. She pictured Darken's face when he learned she'd Confessed Egremont. The smile that came to her face was one of sick satisfaction.

***

Richard folded Kahlan into a hug. "Alana's been looking over the staff to see who to keep but I'd like your opinion." Richard bounded away again. "Most of the garrisons have checked in and agreed to follow my leadership. For a lot of them I think it's a relief. We're starting to look at how to recall them."

Kahlan nodded. "Have you looked at how to get food to the D'Harans who are left?"

"Yes, I'm working on that." Richard said quickly. "The problem though is trying to get the garrisons to stop conscripting men. They claim it's necessary."

Cara presented herself in the doorway. "Some of my Sisters have captured Darken Rahl, my Lord."

"That was fast." Kahlan commented.

"I warned the Temples for miles around to search for him." Cara scrunched up her face. "There's a sort of echo where the Rahl Bond used to be." Her eyes flicked from Kahlan to Richard and back. "We can always find our Lord Rahl."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Before Kahlan had Confessed Egremont.

"I wasn't sure whose side you were on." Cara said without apology.

"Now you know." Kahlan said dully.

"Now I do." Cara replied but didn't expand.

***

Jennsen was one of the first to become aware of Darken's arrival. Two Mord Sith dragged him between them, dropping him in the main courtyard where the one on the left gave him the Breath of Life. Jennsen's eyes burned as she remembered her mother's death. Darken jerked back to life, staggering back to his feet through an effort of will. The Mord Sith who brought him back kept a grip on the scruff of his neck.

Cara strode into the courtyard with a sneer. "Darken Rahl. Good to see you again."

"Cara. You always were one of my favorites." Darken forced his face into something that resembled a smile more than any other human expression.

Jennsen stepped forward softly. She knew when he saw her because the mangled smile fell away to be replaced by a look of pure animal pain. "You killed him?"

"Five times." One of the newly arrived Mord Sith growled. "Couldn't have him escaping."

"We took turns. No one's imprinted too much on him." The other chimed in. "Like the old days."

"Old days?" Jennsen was too late to stop herself. She didn't want to know.

Darken Rahl sneered at her. "So which dungeon am I going to? Are you going to tie me up? I know the equipment is here ready and aching to be used."

"You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?" Cara said emotionlessly. "Let's take him to Lord Rahl for judgment."

Following the Mord Sith and Lord Rahl up to the room where Richard, Zedd, Kahlan and Alana were trying to reorganize the D'Haran Empire. They had books open all over the room and maps covering the walls. They were so busy that Jennsen felt guilty for intruding on their space.

Zedd glared at Darken but Kahlan was the first to speak. "We could use him. He knows more about the way this Empire is run than anyone else. The records might not be complete or they might be in code. And it would be-"

Zedd turned his glare on Kahlan. "That man tried to kill us all. He tried to kill Richard before Richard was old enough to walk. He's the reason Richard never knew his mother and why I never knew Jennsen. He's killed thousands of innocent people, impressed men, murdered civilians, unleashed a plague that nearly killed us both, held you captive for months and only the Creator knows what else. He's brainwashed you."

"No!" Kahlan glared venomously. "I think he could be useful."

"He's a cold blooded murderer!"

Alana clapped her hands. "You're repeating yourselves." She sneered at Darken Rahl. "Your orders meant that most of my Sisters are dead. Without the First Wizard's help I would have lost my hand because of you. Can you tell us why we should spare you?"

Darken looked up at Richard with one eye since the other was swelling shut. "Is this how you want to start your reign? Ah well, it is traditional to kill off the previous Lord Rahl's most loyal people if they don't come over to your side. I suppose I would be that."

Alana gripped him under the jaw and looked over her shoulder at the Seeker.

Richard shook his head slowly. "He's immune to that. We can't kill him in cold blood and Kahlan has a point about the possibility of some of the records being in code."

"It wouldn't be murder, it'd be an execution." Zedd argued. "The same way he executed all those children in Brennidon."

"I spared your daughter." Darken's voice was hoarse as he turned his piercing gaze on Zedd.

Jennsen took a step forward before she thought about it. "Why?" She felt the tears start burning at her eyes and nose again as she remembered the brief, ill attended funeral they had thrown together for her mother before going into hiding. Her mother's empty eyes staring at the treetops when she should have been safely asleep in bed. All because Jennsen had a gift and had tried to play the hero. Denna had only killed her to motivate Jennsen. Without Jennsen her mother would have still been alive.

"He's lying to save his skin." Zedd said immediately. "You can't trust anything that snake says."

"Really?" Darken sounded strangely calm for a man listening to his enemies discuss his execution. "Then how did I know where to find her so quickly? You know when you put up your magical defenses around the Box and you know how long it took me to get her there to go through them. I already knew where she was."

"Why would you spare the Seeker's mother?" Zedd asked derisively. "You hunted him and everyone around him obsessively.

"I didn't know she was his mother until the men who survived that encounter with the Seeker reported back to me." Darken gritted out. "That isn't why my father imprisoned her. He did that because she was your daughter. I released her." He twisted out of Alana's grip and spat on the stone floor.

"Why?" Jennsen asked again, crouching next to him. She felt the same tug she had before when she hadn't known who or what Darken Rahl was. The way Jennsen and her mother had lived had protected her from the worst excesses of Lord Rahl's reign but she didn't doubt her mother's stories.

"Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander vanished completely." Darken looked at her. "My father thought to draw him out of hiding so he placed a bounty on Tarralyn Zorander. She was found walking somewhere in the Midlands and brought here. When I took over I released her but kept track of where she settled. Since I don't trust that anyone is dead until I have lit the funeral pyre myself and maybe not even then I didn't want to be the one holding the First Wizard's daughter when he decided to make his reappearance. How was I to know he'd chosen the Seeker over his daughter?"

Jennsen slapped him as hard as she could and had her hand back for another blow when Alana caught her wrist. The edges of the world blurred with tears and her breath hitched. "So you're my brother."

"Yes." Darken said quietly, the edge in his voice flaying Jennsen. "I didn't know she was with child until after I resettled her. Then you were pristinely ungifted and I knew you could be useful."

Jennsen switched her attention to Alana who nodded.

"If I were lying I would have told you it brought me joy that one of us escaped our father. That it made me happy to know that you were safe and having a normal childhood despite your gift." Darken snorted, his body tight with pain. "I would say that it pleased me to know that I could give you what I didn't have. But none of you would believe me."

Jennsen fled from the room.

***

Kahlan sat and watched Darken sleep. Livid bruises made patterns over his face and torso as he twitched and tried to fake sleep. "I know you're awake," she said softly.

"Here to gloat about your victory?" Darken grunted and painfully cracked one eye.

"The Mord Sith were pretty rough on you." Kahlan noted without sympathy.

"Lord Rahl must know how to deal with pain." Darken quoted dully, yawning. "I barely notice it now."

"I see why you always wore that ridiculous vest everywhere you could." Kahlan eyed the scars on his torso. She had instantly recognized those scars from what she had seen on Richard. Her memory failed when she tried to recall how much pain the Agiel could induce and tried to apply it to the scars she was seeing.

Darken blinked emotionlessly. "You Confessed Egremont."

"Yes." Kahlan twitched. "He wasn't cooperating."

"Ah," Darken sighed. "Now what?"

"You don't have to worry about averting the prophecy anymore." Kahlan swallowed hard. "It's been fulfilled."


	11. Chapter 11

Jennsen tucked her bare feet up under her as she sat on a bench in one of the courtyards of the People's Palace. Even after four days she was still being struck with all the differences between her previous life and the way people lived in the heart of D'Hara. She hadn't really understood why her mother never went to a village with more than thirty people or why her mother never remarried or why she told stories about the Seeker so close to the People's Palace. Jennsen had grown up hearing about Richard so much she felt like she knew him.

Her mother hadn't just told her stories about the Seeker, the brave man who would bring about the defeat of Lord Rahl. Jennsen's mother had spent Richard's birthday imagining what her little boy would be like; whether he'd have straight teeth or crooked, if he'd have a girl he particularly liked, what his favorite color might be. Every year Jennsen had spent that day wondering what it would have been like to grow up with an older brother, a hero. At the end of the day Jennsen's mother would tell her about her birth date.

It started with the descriptions of birth pangs and Jennsen's mother was always sure to add that she had known the pain would be worth it to get to know the child she had been carrying for months. It always ended with Jennsen's mother telling her about the days she'd spent holding her infant daughter and fearing that soldiers would come to take Jennsen away. Jennsen hadn't had time to think about that while she'd been on the run from Darken Rahl's soldiers. Every day she had pushed aside all thoughts that didn't have to do with helping the Resistance and defeating Darken Rahl.

Once, Jennsen had thought that the only way to defeat Lord Rahl would have been to kill him. That would have been fine with her for reasons her grandfather could articulate better than she would ever be able to. Even if Darken Rahl hadn't ordered Denna to kill Jennsen's mother he had still put Denna in the frame of mind where she felt killing Jennsen's mother was... good. Jennsen knew that and she felt it but it had been easier to live with before she had actually met Lord Rahl. Even knowing that all he had wanted from her was her help getting the Boxes of Orden and everything he had said and done was to that end alone Jennsen still wasn't sure how she felt about Darken Rahl. Jennsen had spent months trying to make herself disbelieve his claim that he was her older brother. After a time she had settled on the rationalization that whether or not he was her brother didn't matter. Even if he was a member of what was left of her family he was still evil and still needed to be stopped.

But deep down Jennsen still doubted. Everyone she talked to always had an excuse for where they wanted her to be and why. Jennsen's grandfather and her good brother loved her but wanted her far away from the fighting; for her own safety, to protect the Boxes and likely a few other reasons as well. Darken Rahl had sent her out to find the Boxes and had wanted her affection to insure he got them. Her mother had been in hiding and unwilling to let Jennsen go because of who Zedd and Richard were and because of Jennsen's gift. Jennsen was left with the feeling she imagined a mouse had during an avalanche.

The number of other children Jennsen had known as a child was few. Her whole life was hiding. There had been no boys courting her, no girls to talk to about clothes or boys, no people in her life other than her mother. It wasn't that Jennsen had especially wanted to giggle about boys but she hadn't even known what she was missing until she had gone underground with the Resistance. Some of the families Jennsen had stayed with had been three or four generations all contained in one farmhouse; grandparents helping to look after small children while their parents worked in the fields or at their trades. Not all of them accepted Jennsen the same way but all of them had known that they weren't Jennsen's final destination.

It was like wandering in a blizzard when she didn't know any better and then finding a house full of light and warmth and not being able to get inside. Zedd and Richard loved her; Jennsen had no doubt of that. Darken might love her in his own twisted way or maybe he just wanted to love her. Kahlan and Alana had become the sisters Jennsen had never had. But it wasn't enough. Jennsen immediately felt selfish for that thought. The truth of it burned her on the inside. They were all busy with affairs of state and she didn't know how to help them. The Palace staff took care of their physical needs and as much as she tried to help she always felt in the way.

With a weary sigh Jennsen stood and decided it was time to try again. She wanted to be useful but it was hard when she didn't read or write in the language most of the records were in and when she didn't have any way to judge how accurate the records were. There was the added problem that so far few of the people outside of Richard's group took her seriously. She was just Lord Rahl's younger sister; not a Wizard, not a Confessor, not a Mord Sith and not even a soldier. Jennsen might be special when going up against Wizards but she was no match for a group of armed men.

While Jennsen thought she trudged down the stairs to the rooms Richard had taken over. The rooms here were less ornately decorated, more like the ones Darken had installed her in during her second visit. Her steps echoed oddly as she turned the corner and walked through her grandfather's protective webs. The scene she saw when she opened the door didn't surprise her. Darken sat in a corner with a smirk that said he was far above everything going on even though his fingers were bound. Richard was gesturing angrily at a map and glaring at Alana who had her hands on her hips. Kahlan looked like she had a migraine and Zedd seemed to be ignoring them all in favor of some reports.

"No," Alana said hotly. "I won't go play mouthpiece for Lord Rahl. I can do more good here."

"Fine!" Kahlan snapped. "I'll go."

"What's going on?" Jennsen asked hesitantly. She still wasn't used to being the center of attention for very many people. She flinched at the angry glares turned her way.

Kahlan sighed and softened her expression. "The soldiers at Brennidon are giving the locals trouble and vice versa. We need to have someone go mediate."

"Brennidon, my mother's home?" Jennsen asked, her curiosity roused.

"Yes." Alana said tightly. "It's a very long way from here. So long that it might be over by the time I get there even if I use horses."

"I'll go." Jennsen offered.

Zedd looked up but it was Richard who said, "No."

"Why not?" Jennsen asked, indignation overcoming shyness. "I've never seen it."

Alana gave her a speculative look. "And what would you do once you were there?"

Jennsen gulped a breath, afraid she was about to start babbling. "I'll talk to everyone and listen to them, really listen. I'm the younger sister of Richard who is both Lord Rahl and the Seeker of Truth and I'm granddaughter of the only First Wizard of the Midlands who's still alive." She winced as she realized what she'd just said and sent her grandfather an apologetic look.

"She has a point," Darken Rahl said archly, conspicuously at ease.

"She isn't trained for that kind of thing." Zedd glared at Darken Rahl.

"I'm right here." Jennsen reminded them, knowing Darken Rahl was deliberately riling her grandfather.

"I think it's a good idea." Alana said, the edge on her tone sharp enough to cut glass.

There was a pregnant pause as everyone turned to look at Richard. "I'm not sending you there by yourself."

Kahlan had the serene look she usually saved for when she was fulfilling her duties as Confessor. "Chase should be in the area. Have him protect her while she goes there as your voice. Emma and their children would probably do well in Brennidon."

Richard paused. "That could be-"

Jennsen gave her brother a look, raising her chin. "This is something I want to do. You need Kahlan and Alana here right now. They're better at this than I am."

"Alright," Richard sighed. "I'll contact Chase and ask him to escort you." Richard helplessly held out his hands. "Are you sure you won't think about staying?"

"If things settle down I'll come back." Jennsen smiled reassuringly, not sure if she was telling the truth.

"I'll miss you, Jennsen." Richard said sadly.

"I know." Jennsen wasn't sure if that was a lie either but she was too relieved at how well Richard was taking it to care. Until right then she hadn't been sure whether her brother would take it as a betrayal. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip as she realized all over again how little she really knew about her brother. She probably wouldn't know him any better if she stayed a couple more weeks.

"Creator keep you safe, child." Zedd stood and hugged his granddaughter tightly.

Jennsen hugged him back. "You too, grandfather." She would miss him and he would miss her but she was sure he'd find enough to fill his days. After all, he had to look after the Seeker.

***

Kahlan moved slowly through her knife exercises, enjoying the simple tug and pull of muscles in the sun. She was free to move through rooms as she wished, to talk to whoever she pleased, eat what and when she wanted, and to use her power at her own discretion. Not just her ability to Confess people but her power of thought felt less confined. This was why Kahlan felt guilty that the thing she found most pleasurable was flaunting that freedom in front of Darken Rahl. "You were rather quiet earlier."

Darken snorted, and readjusted his bound hands so that her eyes were drawn to them. "What was there to say? The little girl wants to run away from all this. Who can blame her?" Contempt rang through his every word.

"Do you want to join her?" Kahlan kept her tone light and curious. She wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of getting inside her head.

Darken laughed harshly. "Of course I do. What's left for me here? Your Seeker is playing at being Lord Rahl but he has no understanding of what that entails. Not that it's his fault he was raised in a place where they've never had to deal with wizardry or gars or anything more threatening than famine."

Kahlan's lips twisted into a wry smile despite her intention of remaining blank. "His brother was one of their leaders. They must have learned about leadership from his father."

"I know about Michael Cypher from my garrison's reports. Would I be correct in assuming you Confessed the commander I sent so that he reported the Seeker dead?" Darken's tone almost matched Kahlan's except for a bitter edge of anger he struggled to hide.

Kahlan looked in his eyes and saw right through his arrogant posturing and angry words. "Why does Jennsen leaving bother you so much?"

Darken glared at Kahlan. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that answering a question with a question is rude?"

"No, I was taught that it was my job to ask the right questions." Kahlan answered easily. "It's much better to solve things through the careful application of reason and compromise than to impose a judgment no one has any intention of following. The people of the Midlands might obey us out of respect-" she noticed the incredulous look on Darken's face, "-yes and some fear. But it wouldn't work if we didn't give good judgments."

"You're lecturing." Darken said, exaggerated boredom evident in every line of his body. "Why am I here instead of some deep, dark cell?"

Kahlan shrugged, unconsciously putting her hands on her hips. "Would you rather that we put you in some deep, dark cell?"

"No." Darken answered with a sly smile. "Is this a case of trying to catch more flies with honey?"

"No." Kahlan said a little too firmly. "I believe in respecting you as a person. Even though you're a prisoner and a murderer and have committed many acts of torture and fraud I'm still going to treat you as I think a human should be treated. Obviously we can't trust you so you'll be kept on a short tether but there's no reason we should stoop to your level."

The short, bitter laugh that escaped Darken was quickly hidden by a taunting smile. "What did I do to you that was so horrible? I tried to show you the truth."

"This isn't about me." Kahlan matched his smile. "I'm a Confessor. I'm an expert at finding the truth. I don't have to be dragged to it like an inbred lap dog." Kahlan squared her shoulders and stepped away from Darken. "Everybody tells so many lies to each other and to themselves. It's more difficult to tell why someone is lying than to tell if they are." She held up a finger when it looked like he was about to interrupt. "You did lie but I believe that you lied to yourself more than you lied to me. D'Hara was created for a purpose and I believe that purpose would be better served by your cooperation than your execution."

"That does explain why you let your Seeker destroy me using the power of Orden but kept me away from the Keeper." Darken's penetrating blue eyes met hers. "Intellectually."

"I don't know what you mean." Kahlan looked down at her feet and bit her lip.

"No? When I first brought you here you fought me as hard as you could. You appear to have stopped fighting me and you're trying to convince me you're doing this all for your own purposes. I think you have feelings for me. I think that whatever rationalizations and justifications you've come up with to convince the First Wizard and the Seeker to let me live are merely to cloak the truth of what you feel. Which are you more afraid of; that your Seeker and his Wizard will turn on you or that I'm right?"

"You really are an arrogant bastard." Kahlan's voice quivered with outrage. "My aims are exactly the same as they were the day I took my oath as a Confessor."

"What would those be exactly?" Darken asked mockingly.

"Peace and prosperity for my people." Kahlan answered. "If it would be better for them to keep you alive then I will keep you alive."

"My life is dependent on my usefulness." Darken said in the same slightly acid tone. "That does sound very different from the way I treated my prisoners." He raised his eyebrows. "You're about to ask me to do something you don't think I'll like very much."

"I want you to wear a Rada'Han." Kahlan said without a hint of apology.

Darken Rahl blinked rapidly. "Why? In case it escaped your notice I'm not a match for the First Wizard."

"Zedd isn't always around to keep an eye on you."

"You don't think you're able to keep me in line?" Darken asked in a curious tone that belied the look in his eyes.

"I think you're smart enough to eventually find some hole to exploit no matter what we do to keep you occupied. If you're wearing a Rada'Han it will limit the damage you can do when that happens." Kahlan tilted her head. "Richard told me what you were able to do to the Mord Sith and guards I Confessed when you pushed me into the Con Dar. You used a simple illusion when you were fighting him but against them you just did sword work and then the transport spell. Fine, not just sword work. Very impressive sword work that didn't rely on any spells that Richard could see."

"So you talked about me when I wasn't around." Darken said smugly.

"Well, yes. We had to figure out the best way to get to you. Since you weren't formally schooled at Aydindril Zedd wasn't sure just how strong you were. Giller worked for us so we already knew what he could do. You were unknown." Kahlan shrugged. "From what we've seen you aren't very powerful. You prefer to outthink and intimidate your opponents. I know you've said it before but you always try to make it sound like a purely good thing instead of something with drawbacks."

Darken raised a skeptical eyebrow. "There's something wrong with making my enemies too scared to fight me? I thought it saved a lot of mess."

"You're terrified of battle and Giller worked all of your major spells. After his death your sorcerers figured out how to make the Whisperers, not you." Kahlan thoughtfully cocked her head. "Why did you stop using those?"

"Once you've used a few the threat either works or it doesn't." Darken shrugged too casually. "Besides, once the threat's sunk in there's too great a chance one or two or a crate will fall into the wrong hands either through incompetence or greed."

"Is that why your father thought you weren't worthy?" Kahlan asked neutrally.

"What?" Darken exclaimed, real surprise and fear flashed for a beat before being covered by anger and hate.

"All Lords of the House of Rahl have been wizards. According to the histories they were more than a match for any given First Wizard in their lifetime. That could be exaggerated since the Aydindril wizards could be trying to exaggerate their achievements by exaggerating their enemies' abilities while the Rahl histories exaggerate the powers of their side to intimidate their enemies." Kahlan's lips twisted as she tried to control her own anger. "But I think you're weaker than your father and that's why he kept having more sons. Why should he care if you died when it would let a more powerful son take your place?"

Darken clenched his hands into fists. "The Seeker is not better than me."

"Keep repeating that." Kahlan said scornfully.

Grimacing in something that he wanted Kahlan to believe was disgust Darken glared at Kahlan. "I know what I'm talking about."

Kahlan said nothing about how he had just equated more powerful with better despite all of his protests that his way of doing things was better than just using power. She didn't comment on his defensiveness. She didn't say anything at all as she stared Darken down.

He broke first. "Why did you take his side? I thought we really connected."

"I told you, I didn't pick sides." Kahlan had to pause as she realized the pity she felt for him was real. "You really don't understand, do you? I didn't side against you, Jennsen didn't side against you and Denna- well, Denna did side against you."

"Explain to me how that makes any kind of sense." Darken said in a brittle tone that used to make grown men think about wetting themselves.

"Jennsen and I both sided with our consciences." Kahlan looked Darken in the eyes, scrying his mind to see if she could convince him to follow her if not Richard. "Denna sided against you and with herself. Neither Jennsen nor I had any reason to feel loyalty to you. You destroyed our families and while I believe that you believe it was justified and may even feel regret about it, you aren't sorry. You work to make your own enemies." Kahlan closed her eyes and sighed. "The frustrating thing is that you know this."

Darken Rahl rubbed a bound hand over the tip of his nose. There was nothing he could say to that without repeating himself. "She gave the Boxes to your Seeker. In doing so she sided with him."

"And you accuse me of oversimplifying." Kahlan scoffed. "You never gave Richard a choice in being your enemy so you don't have room to complain about your father never giving a choice in enemies. Jennsen is free to choose. Many of my enemies choose me either because of what my order stands for or because like you, they're afraid of my power. Even so, deciding that I think the people of the Midlands and D'Hara are better off without you in charge does not mean that I stand against you. Nor does my decision to preserve you for your expertise mean that I have any sort of romantic attachment to you." Kahlan reopened her eyes. "The world isn't divided into people who're on your side and people who aren't. Everyone has their own agenda that might coincide with parts of yours and might not."

"You Confessed Egremont." Darken said suddenly. "In doing that you sided against me."

Kahlan was taken aback. That had been an unexpected counter even though she'd known how much it would hurt him.

"You call me weak and ask me to accept a visible limitation on my power." Darken adjusted his bound hands to draw attention to them. "I'll wear it." He sighed heavily.

***

Darken Rahl stared at his prison walls and contemplated the nature of irony. This was more than he would have expected if anyone had told him that his dumb brother, the Seeker, would take over and leave him alive. That made it chafe all the more and not only did the Mother Confessor know it but so did the First Wizard. He fingered the collar around his throat, half insult and half honor. He suspected both parts were equally heartfelt from the Mother Confessor.

Jennsen had physically abandoned them all while remaining firmly in the Seeker's camp. Darken had considered marking time on his wall as a way of keeping track of how many days the Seeker had been Lord Rahl but had discarded the notion as childish. Now that Jennsen was gone he considered it again as a way of keeping track of how long it took Alana to follow suit. Both departures were easy to see coming from a long way off if the viewer could read people as well as Darken Rahl could.

The Seeker was an office. The Seeker was a man. Both were strong and weak just as he had been both strong and weak as a man fulfilling the office of Lord Rahl. The new Lord Rahl thought he could carry out his duties differently, better. Darken was torn between anticipation at watching the Seeker fail and worry about what would happen to him when the Seeker inevitably failed. He approached everything wrong, like it could all be solved with good intentions and a magic sword.

Admittedly, so far it was working. Darken had to give the Seeker credit for picking good followers. Most of the Resistance leadership was willing to put its faith in the legend and let the Seeker try to do what he could. The Confessors were sworn to him and the First Wizard was his doting grandfather. That combination gave the Seeker a position of strength and loyalty that so far had nothing to counter it. Human nature being what it was Darken was sure that somewhere there was a Resistance leader preparing to set himself up as a warlord.

The logical step would be to declare that the Seeker had turned his back on the ideals of the Resistance by accepting the title of Lord Rahl. Figuring out which ones would be likely to splinter would be easy if Darken could look at their correspondence. But to do that would support the Seeker as Lord Rahl and Darken wasn't sure he was willing to do that yet or ever.

He felt an echo of what Kahlan had said about everyone having their own agenda. Darken supposed it could be worse. The Seeker could be like Darken who would have insisted on executing his predecessor on principle. But their differences both philosophical and longstanding made the Seeker less likely to listen to his advice. So far Darken had seen little evidence that the Seeker was good at filtering reports but long on the stubbornness needed to read through them. Between the Seeker's insistence on doing every little detail himself that he could and the Wizard's suspicion that everything Darken did was to pave the way for a coup there wasn't much that Darken could do to help or hinder.

He still wasn't sure which he wanted to do.


End file.
